


Still Not A Player

by PleasantlyWeird



Category: Tom Hardy - Fandom, Tommy Conlon - Fandom, Warrior (2011)
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 13:28:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 58,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1690013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PleasantlyWeird/pseuds/PleasantlyWeird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy Conlon as a gigolo. Enough said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'm not a player I just fuck a lot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Banner by the lovely, fuck-a-licious Ginger Conroy aka Calliope aka Bad-ass. Thanks! <3

 

The summer has been the hottest weather that Tommy can remember other than the time he spent in Iraq. Hearing the incessant ticking of the clock on his bedside table he looks over at it and sees that he still has an hour before his next gig.

Doing a rapid series of sit ups he drags his bones off the bed and into the shower. He keeps the water cool even though he knows it’s a mistake and will only make him feel hotter once he gets out. Sliding the bar soap over his stomach and taking care to wash his cock and balls thoroughly his movements are mechanical. There’s no time or inclination for jerking off any more. He has to save all of that for them, the ones who call.

It’s been four years since his last professional fight. Tommy had suffered a career ending injury at the hands of Koba. It seems Koba had wanted some payback for losing to his brother at Sparta and since Brendan didn’t fight anymore that bill had been handed to Tommy instead. The Russian had fought dirty and Tommy had spent eleven months in a back brace and metal halo. No promoters would touch him now and while he made a decent amount doing personal training he wasn’t able to earn from fighting anymore.

It had been rough going for a while; there is no health insurance for pro fighters and while his fans had come together and paid his medical bills with fundraisers and Brendan had given him money he was loath to depend on anyone else. Taking charity didn’t sit well with him but at the time, while he was recuperating and mending he hadn’t had much of a choice.

Slowly he’d gotten back into shape and had taken on some clients as a personal trainer. No one looking to fight pro mind you; mainly it had been bored housewives who wanted something to ogle while they did their squats and a few men who merely had wanted to rub elbows with a d-list celebrity. It hadn’t mattered to Tommy why they wanted him as their trainer as long as they paid on time every week and didn’t mind that he trained out of his basement.

Annalise had been the one who broached the subject. She was a horny cougar who looked damn good for her age and made no secret of her desire to fuck Tommy raw. She was married but according to her the husband was always gone. Tommy had done his best to brush her advances off as a joke but one day she’d just grabbed his cock and he’d bent her over his weight bench, pulled her tiny ass running shorts to the side and slid into her. He’d fucked Annalise like he hated her because he had; she made him feel sick with her fake concern when he knew it had all been part of her plan to get screwed.

Annalise had clawed at the carpet and screamed so loud he was sure the neighbors might call the law but afterwards she’d laughed, gasping for air as she rolled onto the floor.

“You’re wasting your talents Conlon, you oughtta be a gigolo instead of a personal trainer. You’d make more money and wouldn’t have to work near as damned hard.”

Tommy had glared at her, deciding that he wouldn’t train her anymore and was about to say so when she’d pulled out her wallet and handed him six one hundred dollar bills.

“That was the first time in seven years that I’ve had an orgasm with anyone else. Thank you.”

She had kissed him on the cheek, used his bathroom to clean up and then left without another word.

It had become a weekly thing for him and Annalise. She paid him six hundred to start and two hundred for each orgasm he was able to pull out of her. Then one night he’d gotten a phone call from a woman named Carla and she’d asked if he’d be interested in taking her on as a client like Annalise. At first Tommy had been furious that the woman had been telling her friends about what they did and he’d dropped Annalise. But damn, he’d really missed that money so he called Carla and set up a date. Eventually he’d taken Annalise back on too and had encouraged them to recommend him.

It had taken some time but eventually Tommy got used to the idea that he was a whore for all intents and purposes. It wasn’t something that was common knowledge; his friends and family don’t know and he’ll keep it that way. He only does his business outside of the ‘burgh and he has a pretty good list of clientele that have as much to lose as he does if anyone finds out.

He has no moral qualms about what he does and he tries to look at it merely as a service he provides. He’s good at it and he enjoys it for the most part. The women are all older, good looking and they smell nice. He likes the attention he gets from them as much as the money he makes. He’s even been on a couple of weekend vacations with two of them with the promises of more and that’s fine with him.

He doesn’t have to talk, the women actually prefer if he doesn’t. They all like the glaring, surly persona who basically takes them against the wall, fucks them doggy style with their panties pulled to the side or rips their clothes off and ravages them like some kind of rabid beast. The best part is that once he’s performed and the women are satisfied he can leave, no strings attached and not see them until they call him for more. He doesn’t have to see anyone a second time if he chooses not to, he can refuse dates and have as many or as little in a time span as he likes. He can charge what he wants because god knows they all have so much money that they’re just dying to throw at him.

Sometimes it’s because they ain’t getting worked at home by their man. Sometimes they fuck him as some sort of revenge because they know their men are getting some strange on the side. Sometimes they call him out of sheer loneliness and sometimes they simply just want to get off. It doesn’t matter why they call as far as he’s concerned. It’s easy money and if he nuts while he’s at it all the better.

Stepping out of the shower Tommy dries off and slides into his jeans and tee. He doesn’t ever dress up for them, they like to see him as the dirty blue collar secret that’s sneaking in the back door for a quick and filthy while the mister is at work, on the golf course or away on a business trip.

Slapping some Grey Flannel aftershave on he looks at himself in the mirror and like usual he isn’t impressed with what he sees there. Shaking his head and laughing he combs his hair back into a slick mass of brown and stuffs his wallet and keys into his pocket before heading out the door.

He still drives his old Chevelle but he’s put some money into it recently; having pimped the hell out of it with a new interior, new paint job and a killer stereo. He’s got more money than sense these days and not enough things to spend it on. He still sends quite a bit of it to Pilar and the kids even though she protests since she’s remarried now to another Marine. They’d finally agreed that she would put it in a college fund for the kids.

Hopping in and slamming the door he programs the address into his GPS and heads north out of the city. Tonight he’s seeing a new client. Two of his regulars set him up with this one and he’s a little nervous about taking on a new woman. He hears his cell phone ring and he answers it with a short and simple, “’lo?”

A voice he doesn’t recognize, shaky and weak says, “I need to cancel, I’m not well and I’ll call you to reschedule… maybe.”

The line goes dead and Tommy lets the air out of his lungs in a long stream followed by a muttered _fuck_. He opens his phone again and hits a programmed number.

“Carla, its Tommy. I’m free tonight if you want some company.”

There’s no sense in going back home since he’s already dressed and ready to service someone. He turns direction and heads south to Castle Shannon where one of his wealthiest clients lives. Carla is fifty five, smoking hot and quick to come every time Tommy even touches her. He smiles at the memory of the sounds she makes when she orgasms; it’s why she’s listed as Lassie in his phone.

Thirty seven minutes later he’s ringing the front door bell and leaning against the stone wall of the massive entry way. Carla opens the door and she’s naked; she’s not wasting any time tonight and Tommy’s glad for it.

“You ready for me to turn you out, baby?” He asks as he grabs her by the neck and crushes his mouth to hers.

 


	2. Older women

Four hours later and twelve hundred dollars richer Tommy staggers out of the estate and into his car. Carla is a beast and he knows he’ll be sore for a day or two; the woman has thighs like granite and takes every opportunity to squeeze various parts of him with them. Tonight it had been his head as he ate her out and made her come. She’d put the pressure on his skull so hard that he’d had to pry her thighs apart just so he could breathe. Pilates or whatever fucking exercise she was doing was going to kill him.

He laughs as she shoves the wad of cash into his pocket and slides into the Chevelle. He turns the satellite radio onto some 80’s hair metal station and slings some rubber into Carla’s fancy landscaping as he peals out of her gated driveway. His phone vibrates in the seat beside him; he hadn’t taken it in with him, he never does. He found early on it made his clients nervous thinking he might try to take blackmail pictures of them.

Looking at the screen he sees that it’s a voice mail and he dials the phone to check his messages. The same shaky and weak voice he’s spoken to earlier comes through the speakerphone as Tesla sings about Little Suzi through his expensive speakers.

“Mr. Conlon, it’s me again, um, Elissa. I’d like to apologize for cancelling last minute and I’d also like to try and reschedule as soon as possible.”

This chick sounds odd, probably because she sounds younger than his average client. She also sounds nervous and that’s not unusual for a first timer. Checking his watch he sees that it’s nearly two in the morning and decides to call her back at a more appropriate hour later today.

Yawning and adjusting himself with one hand while driving over the speed limit, Tommy feels the familiar numbness that creeps in after he’s serviced someone. He’s not sure why it happens but it’s like his brain takes over and completely shuts down his emotions. It started happening after he wondered aloud to himself what his ma would think of what he’s doing. Since then he goes almost dead after a session until he can shower and sleep it off. He doesn’t fight it or think about it too much since it works for him.

Pulling up in front of his apartment he sees Paddy’s car there and the old man’s silhouette is plain in the streetlight as he sleeps off whatever he’s been drinking. He shows up like this infrequently and has since Tommy got hurt. Tommy still doesn’t talk to him or even bother to check on him. Paddy’s drinking again was the deal breaker and Tommy had to shut him out for his own good and peace of mind. After watching his mother die he wasn’t about to open himself up to that hurt again because Paddy couldn’t say no to drinking.

Tommy parks and speed walks past the old hoopty, not even looking once before racing up the steps and into his apartment building.

 _Maybe it’s time to move_ , he thinks to himself. It’s not that he doesn’t have the money to get into a nicer place; it’s just that he stays so busy now between training and fucking that he can’t fathom when he would have the time.

Tossing the contents of his pockets onto the coffee table he stretches and heads back to the shower. Throwing the bar of soap from the shower away he unwraps a new one; it’s his weird little quirk. He has to use a new bar of soap after every encounter or he doesn’t feel clean. He needs to rush this shower and get into bed. He has an eight o clock a.m. with Ms. Barbi and she doesn’t like to be kept waiting for one second. She’s his oldest client as far as age but she’s one of his most voracious. She’ll take up the bulk of his day and he’ll come home with three grand at least. Its well worth the sore dick she gives him because she doesn’t know the meaning of ‘no teeth’ while she takes great joy in sucking him off. Her kink is that she likes to take him to seedy hotels outside of Pittsburgh to fuck but he always has to meet her at her home for some reason. Sometimes they screw in the back of her limo and other times she just wants to blow him all the way to their destination. Either way, it doesn’t take much work on his part so other than getting his junk gnawed on its easy money.

Tommy stands under the stream of lukewarm water and watches as the soap suds swirl around the drain. He brain feels like it’s been swabbed with Novocain and he’s thankful for that. Scrubbing one more time and rinsing he steps out of the shower and doesn’t bother toweling off. He flops down on the bed soaking wet and stretches out, relishing the feeling of the air conditioning as it blows on his wet skin. It doesn’t take long for sleep to come and when it does he dreams that he’s standing in the center of all his clients naked and they’re all throwing money at him. Then he sees his mother staring at him, standing in the back of the crowd, weeping, and then she turns away from him.

8888888888888888888888888888888888888888 8888888888888888888888888888888888

 

The alarm rings but Tommy has been awake for an hour or so already. The dream about his mom being ashamed of him and what he does never fails to fuck up his sleep and he doesn’t need anyone to tell him what it means. This isn’t one of those hidden meanings like if you dream of a snake it means good luck. He knows his mother would be so fucking ashamed to have a man whore for a son that she would have died without the cancer.

But then again if his life wouldn’t have taken such a shitty turn would he have turned out to be the man he is now? A military deserter and an ex-MMA wannabe who fucks women for cash? If the women can blame their questionable life choices on daddy issues he sure as shit can too, right? Maybe he’d be a fucking doctor or a _successful_ MMA fighter with enough sense to turn down a fight with Koba. But no, his pride and his inability to see his own limitations had led to the end of a lucrative career as a pro. Who knows what kind of money he could have made eventually since Sparta has turned into a yearly event. Paddy Conlon was an abusive drunk who ruined his childhood and forced him to run with his mother but Tommy can’t blame his dumb decisions as a grown man on his pops.

Sitting up on the edge of the bed Tommy runs a rough hand up and down his face and then rests his elbows on his knees. He stands and listens as his back pops like a bowl of fucking cereal before walking to the bathroom. The night sweats that have been a constant companion of his since Manny was killed make another shower necessary and Tommy, as usual, forgoes any hot water. The sting of the cold water has his cock shriveled up smaller than a toddlers and he wonders how successful he would be with women if it was this small all the time. Carla wouldn’t mind; she’d rather have her pussy eaten than fucked anyway. Maybe he could glide on by with just his cunnilingus skills but it wouldn’t be near as fun for him as it is now.

There’s no comparison when it comes to older and younger women. While the younger ones might be tighter and have higher tits, they don’t know shit about fucking. An older woman feels like she’s failed if you don’t come too and she’ll wear a hole in the bed trying to get you there. Younger girls can’t make up in enthusiasm the skill they’re lacking compared to an older woman. And it’s not like he’s fucking a bunch of saggy old hags in the nursing home. Ms. Barbi is in her late fifties but she’s beautiful and she takes care of her body; they all do. Pilates, yoga, he even personally trains a few of them on the days he isn’t beating their heads into the wall with his cock inside of them.

And the money they have is astounding and they don’t care to spend it. Some of it comes from their old men who are always gone and working, some of the women are wealthy in their own rights as widowers or entrepreneurs. Regardless of how they come by the cheese, they all enjoy sending a lot of it Tommy’s way and all he has to do is show up looking like a construction worker and make them come. It isn’t even really about the money anymore; Tommy feels like he’s doing these women a real service and for the first time in a long time he feels good about himself. Yeah, there’s a part of him that wonders what he might be doing to his own soul and questions what this is going to cost him in the long run, but when he’s inside these women and watching their faces as he gets them off it feels damned good in so many ways. He’s been told by almost every woman on his client list that they’ve either never had an orgasm with someone else before him or that it’s been years since they had. Who wouldn’t start to live for that ego boost?

Sliding into his standard attire of jeans, a tight tee, this time black, sneakers and a hoodie, Tommy slaps on some cologne and heads out the door, his keys swinging on his finger as he whistles to warm his mouth up. He’s never given Ms. Barbi oral and is thinking today he might try to surprise her with it.

Stepping out into the early morning sun he isn’t prepared for the croak of his father’s voice calling out to him from the shadow of his building. Paddy’s zipping up his pants, apparently having just taken a piss right next to Tommy’s stoop.

“Tommy!” The old man calls and Tommy pretends not to hear him as he unlocks his car door and slides in. But Paddy is quicker than Tommy expects him to be and has a hand on his door before he can close it. “Tommy, hold up, I need ta talk to ya.”

“I got nothin’ to say to you old man,” Tommy says and glares up at his father. The end of the old man’s nose is red and bulbous, his face is covered in gin blossoms and scars.

“Tommy’s it’s been… it’s been a long time and I’m back on the wagon. No more drinkin’ for me.”

“Let go of my door before I close ya fuckin’ fingers in it.”

Paddy let’s go and backs away, the old man shakes his head at Tommy and shoves his hands in his pockets.

“When you gonna forgive me Tommy?” He asks his voice quavering and a single tear sliding down his face.

“When you figure out a way to bring mom back.”

Tommy leaves a trail of smoke and rubber in his wake as he heads off towards one of the richer suburbs of Pittsburgh. He doesn’t allow himself to think about his father, his mother or even his brother as he heads out to lose himself for a little while. Being emotional isn’t good for business and he plans on giving Ms. Barbi the ride of her life.


	3. Ms Barbi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here comes the part that I warned you about. Not THAT graphic but it's getting there. If you read, PLEASE review. I'm a total review whore and if I get feedback it really makes me want to write more!

Ms. Barbi is very sedate in the limo ride to the hotel. Normally she would be all over him but today she’s happy to just sit and hold his hand. She stares out the window and every now and then gives his fingers a light squeeze but she doesn’t look at him.

Finally the silence is too much and he can’t take it anymore.

“Ever’thing alright? You’re awful quiet today.” It’s all he can muster, he’s afraid to ask too much; afraid that maybe he’s the cause of whatever’s wrong.

“I just feel terribly old today,” she says and finally turns to smile sadly at him, “Just a wayward comment at the country club by a new young fella. Nothing rude but he called me ma’am and offered to help me out of my seat. He meant no offense but it made me feel my age for the first time. And now, to be honest, I feel silly heading out to some seedy motel with a young buck like you.”

The limo stops in front of room 107 at the Avery Inn. It’s total flea bag hotel but not somewhere anyone would ever look for the likes of Ms. Barbi, plus it plays into her down and dirty fetish. Tommy opens the door and steps out into the sun and extends his hand back to the lady.

He doesn’t say anything until he has her inside of the room and he takes her coat and bag from her. Tommy drops to his knees and pulls her dress up, seeing that per usual she doesn’t have any underwear on.

“When I look at you,” he says and then leans in to plant a kiss on her pussy before spreading it open with his fingers, “I don’t see an old woman, I see a beautiful lady in the prime of her life.”

His tongue slides up her slickness and finds her clit and he circles it lightly before sucking it into his mouth. He looks up at her and smiles crookedly as she gazes down at him through heavy lids and winds her fingers roughly in his hair.

“I see a confident, gorgeous and mature bitch who knows what she wants and ain’t afraid to go after it. Now lay back on the bed and let me prove to you just how fuckin’ sexy you really are.”

He pushes her back onto the hideous comforter and knowing how flexible she really is thrusts her legs up towards her chest. He buries his face in her cunt and licks furiously, eager to tease her to the edge of coming without actually giving her that relief.

“Jesus Christ Tommy…” Barbi gasps and pushes his head hard into her cleft, begging him with her actions and sounds to lick and suck harder. Tommy feels inspired and grabs her scarf from the bedside and ties her hands to the cheap headboard.

“Tommy’s in control now, baby,” he laughs, not afraid to sound cheesy because it’s obviously turning this woman on that he’s taken the reins.

He takes his pants off slowly, letting her eyes roam up and down his thighs before settling on his hard length and then he climbs between her thighs. He pushes his cock gently at her opening and smiles down at her. She’s panting and he can feel the wetness seeping out of her and onto the head of his dick.

“You wanna come so bad don’t you baby?” He’s teasing and he can feel his own ache growing with every word he says and every sound she makes. “You wanna come so bad and I’m gonna make you.”

He slides up inside of her roughly and wraps arms underneath her back and his hands up and over her shoulders to pull her down into his thrusts.

“Damn you feel so good,” he breathes hotly in her ear as he pumps into her. He can feel her clenching all around him as he pushes in and pulls out. “Tell me baby, do I feel good to you?”

“Oh god, just fuck me hard Tommy.”

Tommy laughs, it’s the first time he’s heard any curse word fall from this woman’s lips and it’s like an affirmation that he’s doing this right.

“Say it again, baby, beg me to fuck you,” he growls and bites at her ear and neck.

He stops short of plunging into her again and she’s near tears, “Please Tommy, fuck me, make me come…”

He slams hard into her and she screams, wriggling against the scarf that binds her to the bed as she comes hard. Tommy is close behind, her body has gone insane, clutching at his cock and milking him until he cries out and joins her in release.

It takes longer than usual for the spasms and moans to subside. Tommy is beyond pleased and he can tell that Barbi is as well. He unties her hands and kisses her wrists where the skin is marked from her pulling against the soft material of the scarf.

“What were you saying about feeling old?” He’s teasing her again and when she smiles at him she looks more beautiful than ever. She’s practically glowing and he takes pride in knowing he played a part in making her feel vital again.

Leaning down he kisses her gently and then plants other kisses on her neck and chest, working his way down to her breasts. His tongue works her nipples into rock hard peaks and his hand slowly moves down to her cleft to work her into a slow building frenzy.

“Are you ready again so soon?” Barbi asks as she spreads her legs for him.

“I hope you know I’m about to fuck you out so hard I’ll have to carry you back to the limo when we’re done here.”

Tommy doesn’t make idle threats and he also doesn’t disappoint. He smiles as he follows Barbi out of the room and takes a sick little joy in the fact that she’s walking bow legged. At the end of the evening when he’s dropped off back at his car he discovers there is more money in his envelope than ever before. Plus she’s left him a little note, more than likely written while he was in the can, that’s signed with a lipstick kiss instead of her name.

_Tommy baby, next time I’m taking you somewhere nice. Plan to be gone for three or four days. Pack for warm weather. Have your bags ready, I could call at any time._

He smiles at the handwriting that is so neat and lush that it almost looks like a computer printout. She’ll take him somewhere exotic and probably on a private plane. Ms. Barbi has more money than any of his other ladies and she won’t fail to try and impress him like no other. He can certainly use a trip out of the burgh, especially during this dreary fucking winter.

It’s nearly five in the evening and he hasn’t eaten anything except pussy all day. While it tastes great it does nothing to feed his hunger. He decides to stop in at Dales to grab a cheesesteak and catch up with the old bastard.

Parking in the back lot he knows there’s something he’s forgetting to do and the thought niggles at the back of his mind.

“Shit,” he says and grabs his phone from his pocket. He pulls up Elissa’s number on the caller ID and dials. She answers before it even rings on his end.

“Hello?” she says, her voice sounding just as weak and shaky as before.

“It’s Tommy. I’m calling to reschedule our meeting.”

He always talks in code on the phone. He’s never sure when a husband or someone else who doesn’t need to know might be around.

“When are you available?”

“I’m open tomorrow until five,” he answers. He doesn’t have anything scheduled at all but he’s been so busy lately that he’s decided an evening off is in order. He just wants to sit around in his boxers and eat pizza.

“Can you come in the morning about ten? Mornings are… better for me.”

“Ten is fine. Do you know the, um, terms?”

It’s not something he likes to discuss but this is his business and he’d rather get it out of the way over the phone instead of face to face. It’s easier for him if he doesn’t have to throw numbers out there while looking at the woman he’s about to fuck.

“Yes, Carla explained everything to me. Did she… did she say anything about me?”

“I don’t discuss clients with anyone, not even other clients. She only told me your name and phone number.”

He doesn’t mean to sound so brusque but he needs to set this boundary now. He doesn’t have a great feeling about this woman and he senses that tomorrow might be his one and only session with her.

“That’s good. Well I’ll see you in the morning then. Would you care to have breakfast with me… before we… you know?”

“If you want me to have breakfast with you I’d be glad to.”

This woman needs to loosen up and that’s probably why Carla told her about him.

“I’ll see you at ten,” he says and hangs up. Most of these women like when he’s surly with them, it excites them for reasons that Tommy will never understand. Carla tried to explain it once, saying that there’s something about a gruff man wanting to bang your brains out that’s a total turn on for most women. He still didn’t get it.

Heading into Dales is like walking into a grease shower. The place is slick with years of buildup but the food is good enough to make you ignore the hardening of your arteries. Dale calls out to him from behind the counter and immediately starts making Tommy’s favorite; cheese steak with cheez-whiz, onions, peppers and mushrooms.

Tommy slides into a back booth and flips through his phones calendar to see who he’s meeting for the rest of the week and to put Elissa in his schedule for tomorrow.

He’s taking the weekend off to head down to Philly. It’s been a few months since he’s seen Brendan and the kids and he needs to check in before his over protective big brother comes to the ‘burgh and surprise visits him. It wouldn’t do to have Brendan snooping around up here; the bastard has a nose like a fuckin’ blood hound and he wouldn’t take too long to figure out what Tommy’s doing. And Tommy misses Emily and Rosie, he can’t deny it. The two little girls have stolen his heart since he’s gotten to know them and he figures they’re the closest thing he’ll ever have to being a dad.

Tommy’s made huge strides in building his relationship with Brendan as well but he will never get along with Tess. He can’t shake the resentment he still feels towards her since she’s the reason Brendan didn’t leave with Tommy and his mother. It’s not like Tess hasn’t reached out to him or that he doesn’t act civil towards her; he just can’t find it in his heart to like her. She’ll always be a bad memory for him no matter how nice she is and regardless of the fact this his brother loves her as much as he ever did, if not more, after all these years.

Dialing his brother he gets his voicemail; more than likely Brendan is with Frank, his friend, former trainer and now business partner. They’d opened up a huge sports complex and training facility right outside of Philly together with the Sparta money. The two men have been trying to lure Tommy there as a trainer and to become a partner with them but Tommy knows it’s more charity than anything and he can’t accept it.

“Yeah Bren, its Tommy. I’m thinking ‘bout headin’ out for a visit this weekend. Ya’ll got plans? If not hit me up sometime tonight and lemme know. I’ll talk to ya then.”

Tommy smiles up at Serena the waitress who stumbles all over herself every time she has to wait on him.

“Hey baby,” he says, knowing she’ll blush like crazy.

“Tommy,” she says breathily and slides his sandwich and water in front of him as her face turns neon red.

“You doin’ alright today?” He asks and leans back into the booth to take her in. Her body is tight and she’s real cute. Probably not old enough to have a beer yet but old enough that if he decided to play it wouldn’t get him into trouble with anyone but Dale.

“I’m fine…” she stammers and backs away, literally running back to the counter to grab the ketchup she knows Tommy will ask for. He decides he’s fucked with her enough for one day and doesn’t say anything else to her except thanks when she brings it back to his table.

He lets his thoughts wander to this new client as he eats and he wonders what her story is. Carla had seemed like she wanted to spill some details about the woman to him but he wouldn’t let her. He doesn’t like forming opinions on people based on anything other than his own observations. It’s only fair and right. That way if he decides not to take them on as a client then he can do so with a clear conscience.

The cheese steak disappears quickly and Tommy orders one to go so once he hits the apartment he won’t have to leave again for the rest of the night. He feels full and content as he pays for his food and leaves Serena a forty dollar tip. He knows she doesn’t make much waiting tables there and he’s always been the generous sort. He doesn’t stick around to see her reaction but he does wink at her on the way out, causing her to blush so deeply that she’s practically crimson.

Her reaction causes his cock to harden in his pants and he laughs at his own body’s reaction. It seems the more pussy he gets the hornier he is. You’d think it would be the other way around. He thinks about what Serena might look like naked and what kind of noises she might make as he fucked her doggy style. His erection makes for an interesting and pretty uncomfortable drive home; luckily he only lives a few blocks from Dales. He passes his neighbor, Patsy on the way up the stairs and she glares at him. She’s never liked him and makes no secret of it; he does his best to egg that hatred on by flirting with her shamelessly. She looks down and sees his hard-on and crosses herself like he’s the anti-Christ with a boner. He wiggles his hips at her and licks his lips as she hurries off to her door and opens it swiftly.

“Fuckin’ prude,” he laughs as he lets himself into his apartment.

Tommy throws the greasy bag onto the table and takes off his shoes. He kicks back on the sofa and turns on HBO. Some gladiator movie is playing and it’s the kind of thing he likes to watch. He remembers Carla telling him once that back in Rome the women would pay to get banged by the Gladiators. She called him her own personal warrior and he’d laughed. Being a warrior and paid for sex was a nicer thought that being called a whore.

Tommy drifts off less than twenty minutes later and doesn’t wake up until after one in the morning.


	4. The place with the portcullis

The night air is cool as Tommy runs through his neighborhood. He knows going back to sleep without some sort of chemical aid is going to be impossible so he uses this time to burn off some calories and energy. He hadn’t meant to sleep on the couch at all but his body had given him zero choice in the matter.

Running has always been his own personal Zen and tonight is no exception. He never wears headphones because he likes to zone out as his body propels him forward, up hills and down slopes. His pace never slows and he sweats like a maniac. He runs about five miles roundtrip and he’s panting hard as he trots up the steps to his apartment buildings front door. He’s salivating over the thought of the cheesesteak waiting for him on the table; he’ll eat it cold.

His phone is beeping when he walks in and he waits until he has the greasy sandwich on a plate, sitting down before he checks the messages.

It’s his brother confirming that they’ll be home this weekend and happy to see him. Rosie leaves the last few words of the message, “We can’t wait to see you Unca Tomtom.”

He smiles at her precious little voice and decides to head to the mall at some point this week to find his two nieces something cute to take to them.

Tommy devours the cheesesteak in record time and then turns the TV back on to something mindless. There’s a marathon of American Pickers on and he likes that show pretty good so he tunes in and zones out.

He thinks about Ms. Barbi and how she’d been so down about being older. He wonders what he’ll feel like in fifteen years or so. At thirty six he’s not a spring chicken but he’s not really an old man either. His body will probably break down a lot sooner than a normal mans would from all the abuse he put it through in the ring. He cracks and pops in the morning already and he’s sure rheumatism and arthritis are on the horizon for him. But it’s different for a man; it’s ok for men to age and go bald and have a belly. Women are judged differently and he sees exactly why his ladies, even the happily married ones turn to him. They’re judged by a different standard than the men they are or were married to. Men have to be good earners, successful in business and it doesn’t matter how they look. As long as they’re able to provide they can let themselves go to pot and it doesn’t count against them. Women on the other hand are judged based on looks first and foremost and always.

The thought that he isn’t always going to be this built and buff and this good looking is a sort of shocking realization for Tommy. He isn’t a dumb ass nor is he vain but the thought of “What the hell am I going to do when I don’t have my body to rely on,” sends him into a mini-panic and he realizes that it’s probably the same thought that a lot of women his age have.

He thinks that he probably needs to start investing his money now and sending a little less to Pilar and the kids. They’re college funds are probably more than adequate and Pilar is remarried and not reliant on what he sends. She’d never say a word about him sending less money. He’ll talk to Brendan about it this weekend, maybe invest in the sports complex his brother co-owns or maybe buy some stock. Either way, it’s time he started preparing for the future and making sure he doesn’t end up a bum living under a railroad bridge.

The thought of his future makes him wonder if he’ll ever meet someone and settle down. The fact that he does fuck women for money now makes that idea a little farfetched. How could he possibly reconcile his job with anyone he might be in a relationship with? How do you tell someone you’re thinking about getting serious with that you screw for pay? It’s not like he feels any kind of pressure to get into a relationship; he’s never had a serious relationship ever. But at this point in his life he’s more than a little curious about what it might be like to commit to one person; to wake up next to the same face every morning and be happy about it.

He decides that he’s thought about shit that’s currently out of his control and he zones out, watching Mike and his chubby little pal Frank buy junk that he can’t see anyone would want. Truth be told, he’d rather have a close friendship with someone like these two have right now than a mate. It gets lonely and boring sitting watching TV alone in his downtime and sometimes he’d just like a friend to hang with and down some beers with.

On a whim he picks his phone up and texts Carla, knowing she’s a night owl and might be up like he is.

[Tommy C.] Carla, do you have a picture of Elissa? Just wondering what she looks like. She has a funny voice.

He hits send and waits, laughing at Frank and Mike buying a tremendous stuffed elephants head for Jack White. It doesn’t take long for his phone to beep with her reply.

[Carla J.] yeah I think so. Give me a minute…

 

A few minutes later his phone beeps again and the photo he sees has to be a mistake.

[Carla J.] this is her…

  
  
               

Tommy can’t stop staring at the picture. She’s young, she’s beautiful and she seems like the sort of woman who would have men crawling all over her. So what could she possibly want to do with a male prostitute; what would she even need to call one for?

It’s not up to him to decide why she needs or wants him but his interest is more than piqued to say the least. Standing up and stretching he decides to go ahead and shower now that the sun is coming up and then he’s going to stop by Colt’s and see what the little fucker is up to. Maybe he’d like to hang out some time and have a beer or two even though Tommy had ended his number one contender’s career at the first Sparta.

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

 

Colt’s gym smells the same as Tommy remembers; like ass, sweat and testosterone. He can see the man himself hanging ring-side, shouting out orders to some skinny kid sparring with an even lankier opponent.

“Goddammit D, I said keep your hands up!”

Tommy smiles, thinking that perhaps Colt’s given up on heavyweights and gone to a lower weight class looking for a champion.

“Tommy!” Colt shouts and heads over to where he stands at the front desk. “How the fuck you doin’ these days my man?”

“Same old shit, training out of my house. Just some bored women and a few men but it gets me through, yeah? How ‘bout you, I see you’ve gone down a few weight classes.”

“Shit ain’t been the same since Mad Dog retired and you got hurt. Not too much interest in me as a trainer, seems a lot of people think I’m cursed or some shit like that. Gotta train the willing and this is the last of the willing,” Colt says, laughing ruefully and sweeping his hand at the kids in the ring.

“Give it some time bro, it’s gonna come back around to ya,” Tommy says without any true conviction. It’s not like Colt’s hurting for money by any means; the memberships alone keep his pockets lined. But Tommy knows his prides taken a hit; he always loved being a trainer more than being the owner of his own gym.

“Say man, I was wonderin’ if you’d like to maybe go and grab a beer sometime, maybe go and watch some smoker fights.”

Colt looks at him a little suspiciously at first and then laughs.

“Sure man, just call here and let me know when. Might do me some good to get out and scout for some new talent.”

“Alright Colt. I’ll do that. Listen I gotta run but I’ll call soon and we’ll figure out the details, yeah?”

That was a lot harder than Tommy imagined it might be but he’s glad he did it. He’s not entirely sure that he’ll actually call Colt but at least he has the option if he decides that what he wants to do.

Tapping his GPS once he’s back in the car he finds Elissa’s address and heads that way. He checks his reflection in the mirror, there’s nothing stuck in his teeth and although his hair ducktails in the back naturally he doesn’t think it looks bad. His women always run their fingers through his hair anyway so combing it or putting any sort of product in it is a waste of time.

It takes a little longer than he thought it might to get to Elissa’s neighborhood, it’s definitely farther out than he has to drive for anyone else. Pulling up to the gate he thinks it might be a subdivision but it doesn’t take him long to realize that this gate is for her home only. He presses the call button and her voice, instantly recognizable comes over the speaker.

“Yes?”

“It’s Tommy, I’m here for our appointment…”

The gates begin to open and she doesn’t say anything else so he goes in. The paved driveway is long and winding, encompassed by tall trees on both sides. She has a shit ton of money tied up in this landscaping and his breath is taken away when the house comes into view. Fuck that, it’s not a house, it’s a fucking castle complete with turrets and a portcullis. Tommy only knows what a portcullis is because Emily had explained it to him. She was certain that you couldn’t be a princess unless your house had a portcullis.

He notices cameras mounted all along the overhang of the first floor and he’s certain that there isn’t an inch of the front that isn’t covered and monitored. He parks in front of a stereotypical water fountain with pissing cherubs and puking lions, chuckling to himself and more than a little amazed by the sheer size of this place.

The front door opens as he reaches it and a woman, not the one he saw in the picture but a petite blonde woman with perky tits and a gleaming white smile welcomes him.

“This way, Mr. Conlon,” she says with a smile and he follows her down a hallway with a stone floor into a huge room with a towering ceiling. The inside looks as much like a medieval castle as the outside does. The furnishings are more twenties art deco than renaissance but the overall look is pretty fucking cool.

“Elissa will be down in a moment. Can I get you something to drink?”

“I’m good, but thanks,” Tommy says and looks around with his mouth hanging open in amazement. He honestly feels intimidated, worried that the man of the house might show up any minute.

“Say, sweetheart, what does the Mister do for a living?”

“I’m not married,” says a voice from behind him and he turns to see Elissa standing in the doorway.

“Oh,” is all Tommy manages as he looks her over. It’s definitely the woman from the picture but she’s much thinner and extremely pale. Her eyes are huge but sunken in her face giving her a waif-like appearance.

“Jackie, we’ll take drinks in the south parlor. The sun is beautiful in there this time of day Mr. Conlon.”

“Call me Tommy, please,” he offers and follows her as she turns and heads out of the room.

They walk past a dozen doorways before she comes to a stop in front of a stone archway and walks through. When Tommy walks in he feels like he’s on the set of some movie. The room is stunning and unlike anything he’s ever seen. There are couches and chairs everywhere and floor to ceiling windows. The room is ablaze in gold tones with deep emerald accents. He’s no interior decorator but he feels like his eyes are being given a treat.

“Should I pay you now or after we… have our transaction.”

“Whoa, no rush. I like to get to know a little bit about my clients before we do anything. I can’t please you if I don’t know what you like.”

Tommy turns on the charm, giving her his best smile and he relaxes a little when he sees her respond to it.

“Tell me a little about yourself, nothing you’re not comfortable with sharin’ with me. Just whatever you feel like tellin’ me.”

“Well,” she says and clears her throat while sitting down and motioning for Tommy to do the same. The sunlight plays on her hair and he sees tints of copper and gold hidden in the dark brown. He skin is so pale she almost looks translucent. She has an otherworldly quality about her that intrigues him.

“I’m a computer programmer. My main job is hacking, finding the so called chink in the cyber security systems of high profile companies. Umm, my last name is Carter and I’m originally from Sevierville, Tennessee. I’m an only child, never been married, I don’t do drugs and my only friend is Jackie but sometimes I’m not sure that she would continue to be my friend if I didn’t pay her. I’ve never had sex, no not once and oh yeah, I’m currently battling cancer and from what the doctors tell me I’m losing.”


	5. Show me what you're working with

To say that Tommy is stunned by the barrage of things she throws at him is an understatement.

“Wait…” he starts but finds himself unable to finish for quite a while.

“I believe in full disclosure and the matter of my virginity as well as my health seemed important for you to know even though neither is communicable,” Elissa says, laughing with a gleam in her eye. “Please know that I didn’t tell you about my cancer for sympathy. I don’t want pity, in fact, I forbid it. You show me any signs that you’re feeling sorry for me and this whole thing ends. I’m not resigned to dying and I tend to be the type of woman who proves everyone wrong. I’m going through a bit of a rough spot right now but… well case in point, they told me my hair would fall out with the chemo and I’ve yet to lose a single strand.”

Elissa stands and moves to the couch Tommy is sitting on and looks him in the eyes.

“But in the off chance that the doctors are right and I am dying, I don’t want to go without ever having fucked someone. I don’t have time or the inclination for a messy love affair. I don’t want to have to woo or be wooed by someone. You’re the obvious choice since I hear from several of the ladies that come to play bridge with me that you know what you’re doing.”

Her tone is matter of fact and it throws Tommy off. He’s not used to a female being so clinical about sex; every one of his clients has the tendency to romanticize their relationship regardless of the fact that they give him cash afterwards. Elissa is straight up making him feel like exactly what he is and he’s not sure how to handle it.

“So, tell me, are you interested in taking me on as a client? I find you very aesthetically appealing and I think I’d like to have sex with you.”

Tommy lets out a long sigh and smiles at her.

“You don’t hold back at all do you?” He asks and folds his hand in his lap.

“Why should I? I mean, you’re not offended are you? I just assumed that being in the line of work that you are you’d appreciate me being frank with you.”

“Don’t you think your first time should be with someone you, well, like?” Tommy’s starting to feel a little uncomfortable under her scrutinizing gaze. She’s so shrewd, so businesslike about the whole losing her virginity deal that he wonders if she’s all there mentally. “Wait, how old are you anyway?”

“I’m thirty-one and I know you’re wondering how a woman my age could possibly be a virgin. Well there is a story there and it’s a long one and it’s also not something I care to talk about. It just never happened for me. But now I’m ready. So I’ll ask again, are you interested in taking me on as a client?”

“I just… it’s just that, I really…” Tommy stammers and sighs loudly again. “Of course I’ll take you on as a client,” he finally says just as Jackie enters the room with a pitcher of tea and two glasses.

“Wonderful. It doesn’t have to be today. As a matter of fact I’d prefer it wasn’t. I had chemo yesterday and I’m not feeling my best. So when can we plan on meeting again?” Her smile is wide and she seems content having made the decision. Tommy is drawn to her toothy grin and he can’t help but smile back at her even though he still feels weird about the whole situation.

“I’m booked for the rest of the week but I’ll set aside a day next week to come back, unless you’d rather meet elsewhere.”

“Oh no, I never leave the estate. I work from here, I’m a total shut in. Money affords me my eccentricities, I even have my chemo and doctors’ visits here. I only know Carla and the other women because they were curious enough to come here and make my acquaintance. It was all under the guise of getting me to join their garden club but I know it’s actually due to their morbid curiosity about the millionaire who bought the estate. You can imagine their shock when they discovered I was a single, young woman in this huge place all alone.”

Elissa laughs and there’s a sour tone to it. He gets the impression that Carla and her bunch aren’t always gracious to the younger woman and it doesn’t surprise him. Ms. Barbi wouldn’t be pleased to know that this younger woman has more money that her and it’s obvious that this is the case.

Elissa pours Tommy a glass of tea and hands it to him.

“Would you like to hang around, take a dip in the pool? I’d sort of like to see what you look like naked. I’m curious about the size of your penis.”

Tommy chokes on the drink of tea he has in his mouth and it splatters everywhere.

“I’m sorry, was that offensive? I’m not good with social graces, obviously.”

Elissa is staring at him again as he uses a napkin to clean his shirt up as best he can.

“No it’s… you’re fine. I guess I’m just not used to that kind of directness…” Tommy says laughing. He sits the tea down, afraid to try and drink any more for the moment.

“So can I see it?”

“You mean right now? You just want me to whip it out?” He looks around and sees that Jackie is still in the room although it appears she isn’t paying any attention to the two of them.

“Is that a problem?”

She’s daring Tommy with her eyes, seeing how far she can push him before he calls her out or snaps. Never one to back down from a challenge he stands and unzips then pulls his cock out and lets it hang in front of her face.

She doesn’t say anything, instead choosing to nod before looking away. There’s a faint blush to her skin and Tommy smiles, knowing he got the better of her; she must have thought he wouldn’t expose himself.

“That’s uh… it’s rather intimidating since I can assume it only gets bigger when you’re… aroused.”

Tommy snorts this time, unable to hold it back and she looks at him sharply before a faint smile plays on her lips.

“Baby, it’s not like I’d just ram it into you. There are things I’ll do to get you ready,” he leans in closer to her ear and grins at Elissa before looking again at Jackie who’s sitting in a chair out of ear shot working on polishing some sort of silver tray. “I’ll have you so wet, so ready you’ll be begging me for it.”

He smiles when he sees a shiver pass through her and his hand runs over the goose bumps that raise up on her exposed shoulder.

“I’ll make it good for you.”

It’s not cockiness but confidence that compels him to say that.

“Alright then. Next week.”

Tommy stands to go and Elissa presses an envelope into his hands.

“You don’t owe me anything yet.”

“Consider this your retainer then.”


	6. Gudrun, good god.

The next morning he has one client who he never has to actually fuck. All she ever asks for is to be spanked and fingered and she pays an exorbitant amount for Tommy to do just that. Gudrun is a strict German woman who frankly scares the ever loving shit out of Tommy, in fact the truth is that he’s too scared to turn her down as a client. When she comes it’s like something straight out of the goddamned Exorcist and Tommy always leaves her house crossing himself and feeling like he should call a priest.

Gudrun is mid-forties, a little younger than his average client and her accent is thick. She has a tight as hell body, the best tits he’s ever seen on any woman thus far and piercingly cold blue eyes that make him feel like she’s sucking his soul out of his body with her stare. Half of the time she shouts in her native language when she gets off and all of it sounds like a threat. Luckily she never takes long to get what she needs from him and she’s always pushing him out the door as soon as it’s done.

Today is no exception; she’s rowdy and commands that Tommy leave handprints this time. Tommy refuses, telling her that he’ll need some sort of written document that she’s asking for that freely before he’ll mark her in any way. He doesn’t feel right about it and while she doesn’t look happy about it she agrees. Tommy breathes a sigh of relief and they go about their normal routine; she wears a skimpy pair of pleather crotchless underwear and lays across Tommy’s lap while he spanks her roughly and tells her what a whore she is.

Tommy is never truly into this with her but today is even worse; all he can think about is Elissa and everything that had happened yesterday. She had thrown him for a loop several times in the short visit and that wasn’t an easy thing for anyone to do. He can’t stop thinking about how she looked like something out of a fairy tale with her pale skin and high cheekbones. He can’t stop imagining what it’s going to be like to be the one who takes her virginity.

“What is this sheisse, Tommy?”

“What?”

“I ask you to spank me harder and now you give me taps instead…”

“Listen Gudrun, I’m not… I don’t feel well. Let’s just call this even and I’ll call you to reschedule, yeah?” Tommy stands and basically dumps the woman off his lap and into the floor. She hits the carpet with an _umph_ and glares up at him.

“But I haven’t…”

Tommy ignores her and heads to the door; he can hear her cursing loudly behind him and he’s pretty sure this is the last time he’ll pay Gudrun a visit. He just hopes she doesn’t have the desire or power to make other clients drop him when she realizes that he’s not coming back.

Hopping into his car he heads back to his apartment, driving well above the posted legal limit and stopping at the gas station next to Dales to buy a twelve pack of beer. He’s relieved to see that his father’s car isn’t parked outside his building and he’s up and into his space in a matter of a minute.

Dropping the beer in the bottom of the fridge he takes a quick shower before pulling on some boxer briefs and nothing else. He opens a cold one and downs it in a few pulls while standing in front of the fridge and then grabs two more before plopping his ass down on the couch.

Tommy channel surfs for a while before giving up and turning the TV off. He grabs his phone off of the coffee table and pulls up Elissa’s number.

[Tommy C.] Hey its Tommy. u there?

He waits, finishes another beer, and thinks about Chinese food instead of pizza for dinner. His phone beeps and he smiles when he sees that she’s texted him back.

[Elissa C.] Yeah I’m here. Where else would I be? :p

[Tommy C.] So I have a few questions if ur up for answering.

[Elissa C.] Shoot

[Tommy C.] So ur a virgin. Have U ever had ANY sort of sex experience?

[Elissa C.] Other than masturbation? No. And I don’t think I do that very well. I’ve never had an orgasm.

[Tommy C.] Are U 4 real?

[Elissa C.] Totally serious. It’s just never happened. I don’t know what all the hype is about.

[Tommy C.] When you say mastrbtion, do U mean U fingered ur clit or U inserted something?

Tommy’s actually hoping that she’s popped her own cherry with a dildo or something like that. It just seems so odd to him that he might be the one to do it.

[Elissa C.] Have not ever inserted anything. I tried some buzzy thing externally but TBH it hurt and I stopped.

Tommy stares at his phone screen. On one hand it’s turning him on that she’s being so open and honest with him and other the other it worries him that her only venture into something even resembling sex was painful.

[Tommy C.] Are u scared?

[Elissa C.] Should I be?

[Tommy C.] U know what I mean. I dnt want u to fear it.

[Elissa C.] I’m sure you’ll make it an enjoyable experience.

[Tommy C.] As if I ddnt have pressure before. LOL

[Elissa C.] Is there anything I should do to prepare?

[Tommy C.] I’ll take care of everything. What day next week?

[Elissa C.] I don’t know that next week is doable. I have video conferences every day.

[Elissa C.] I was thinking of taking the following seven days off. Could I employ you for the entire week? Name your price.

Tommy thinks about this. If he clears his schedule and then she decides that she doesn’t want to look at him after he deflowers her he could be out of a lot of money. Instead of texting he dials her number and he smiles when he hears her voice.

“It’ll be my standard rate for the entire week regardless of whether you end up keeping me around or not.”

“That’s fine,” she laughs into the phone, “I’ll pay in cash up front and that way there’s no issue or worry.”

“Then I guess we have a deal.”

Elissa hangs up without another word and Tommy smirks at the phone.

[Tommy C.] I’m worth it, you know.

Pulling up his calendar he writes down everyone that he would normally have scheduled for the week that Elissa has reserved him. One by one he texts them; it’s the preferred method since some of them have husbands.

[Tommy C.] I will be unavailable the week after next. The following weeks will be normal schedule.

He pulls up Gundrun’s number and she receives a different message.

[Tommy C.] Gudrun I’m sorry but our arrangement needs to come to an end.

He keeps it simple and to the point and is more than relieved that she doesn’t reply.

Tommy remembers the envelope that Elissa handed him last night; he hadn’t looked in there to see what she’d given him yet.

Putting his phone on the coffee table he jogs to the bedroom and grabs his jeans from the hamper in the corner. Still tucked in the back pocket he feels it and fishes it out. The envelope itself is a pale shade of violet and it reminds him of her eyelids. They’d been almost the same shade and he doesn’t think it was makeup; she was just that lovely naturally.

Opening it up he can’t stop the shocked sound that escapes him as she pulls the stack of hundreds out of the paper holder.

Twelve grand. She’d handed him twelve thousand dollars like it wasn’t any big deal. And he hadn’t done a thing for her yet.


	7. The Odd Week Women

Siobhan, Melaney, Laura, Debbie, Christina, Melody, Melinda, Erica and Jennifer… they rounded out his week and by the time he was done servicing them all he was more than ready for a weekend in Philly. Each one of his women had something about them that he adored and catered to when he was with them.

Siobhan is an Irish transplant with an accent and a dirty mind and equally filthy mouth that never fail to make him hard as a rock. Melaney is his southern belle who charms him and then turns into a sexual savage once the bedroom doors close. Laura started out just wanting to be held but he worked with her until he brought her out of her shell and now she rides him like a rodeo star. Debbie has simply amazing cleavage that he likes to bury his face in and she makes the cutest faces when she comes. Christina is a beautiful but tough as nails woman who he’s actually sparred as a form of foreplay; she doesn’t take any shit and won’t allow him to take it easy on her. Melody is his good girl who doesn’t ask for much but comes so easily that he calls her multiple Mel.

Melinda is his beautiful Latina, who despite her petite frame and innocent smile throws him around the bed like she could whip his ass; her only request is always that he let her fall asleep in his arms before he leaves. Erica is his wild child; he never knows what to expect from her and it’s exciting because she’s insatiable and she keeps him on his toes with role play and sexy lingerie. And Jennifer is his beauty from north of the border. She’s the romantic and he always takes his time with her. She likes to read him poetry the poetry she writes and he likes to listen to her Canadian accent before he makes her cry out his name. And these are just his odd week women.

Driving towards Brendan’s he sighs deeply and looks at his phone. Elissa is constantly in his thoughts now and he decides to text her. Pulling to the side of the road he punches in Elissa’s number and types out a rapid message.

[Tommy C.] I want u to look at different kinds of porn. Look at straight, gay, lesbian (!), kink and fetish. Let me no which one(s) turns u on.

Tommy has done nothing in his spare time but worry about how to ease Elissa into sex without it being painful. He’s not sure why this matters so much to him. She’s a client and has been very clear about what she wants but he’s taking the whole thing very seriously. It’s almost worse to him that she’s in her thirties and still a virgin than if she were a legal teen trying to lose it. She’s held on to it for so long now and he can’t bear the thought of fucking the whole thing up.

[Elissa C.] Will do.

His phone beeps again and he looks down, expecting another message from Elissa but sees it’s from Seline instead. Seline… how can he classify Seline? She was a client but turned into more like a really good friend with benefits. They don’t exchange money for services anymore but sometimes he likes to show up at her apartment unannounced and fuck the bottom out of her. Then they hang out, watch bad B movies and eat junk food. Seline is by far one of the funniest, smartest and coolest chicks he’s ever known.

[Seline R.] What’s up asshole?

[Tommy C.] Headin’ to philly to hang with Bren and the fam. U?

[Seline R.] Well damn, was thinking u might show up and have some raunchy sex with me. It’s been a while.

[Tommy C.] maybe Ill hit u up when im back in the burgh.

[Seline R.] Don’t take too long. I’m moving to FL at the end of the month. PA can kiss my ass. Talk soon.

Tommy pulls back into traffic and smiles. Seline’s been talking about getting out of Pennsylvania for a while and he’ll miss her for sure but he’s happy for her.

Tommy pulls up in front of the Brendan’s house; not the one he was fighting so hard to save but the bigger McMansion that Tess insisted they needed once Brendan had the funds in the bank. Tommy doesn’t like going in there; there’s too much breakable shit sitting on tiny tables everywhere he turns. He tends to stick to the basement where Bren has his man cave and things are much less fragile.

Emily and Rosie run out to greet him and he laughs and sweeps them up into his arms and into a hug. He growls like a bear and pretends to maul them as they giggle loudly.

Brendan comes out and throws his arms around his brother and daughters and then they all walk inside together. Tommy sets the girls down and looks around for any new shit he might bump his big ass into and break. Seeing nothing he breathes a little easier and the four of them head down to the basement.

The girls have a playroom down there and that’s where they head to get the tea party they’ve invited Uncle Tommy to set up. Brendan and Tommy continue down the hall to the theater room as Brendan calls it.

Brendan slaps Tommy on the back and then rubs his shoulder. “How the hell have you been baby brother?”

“Been good,” Tommy says and feels hinky because he can never tell Brendan what he’s really been doing, “Got some shit I wanna talk to you about.”

“Fire away,” Brendan says as he pours them both a tumbler of Glenfiddich and then hands one to Tommy.

“I’ve been saving up some money and I think I wanna invest in the sports complex. I have to start thinkin’ about retirement and all that morbid shit. Do you think Frank would still be okay with that? Are you okay with that?”

“Sure, bro. I think we’d both like to have your name in there. I’ll have to double check with him of course before we do anything definite of course but we can hook up with him tomorrow and talk particulars. Everything else ok?”

“I got something kinda personal to ask you and please don’t take it like I’m trying to pry for no good reason, ok?” Tommy’s stomach twists as he thinks about what he’s about to broach with his brother but not knowing is worse than biting the bullet here.

“Okay,” Brendan says and leans forward in his seat, his expression one of concern now.

“When you and Tess first got together she was… um, she was a virgin yeah?”

Brendan nods and leans back a bit, wondering where his brother is going with this.

“How was the first time? I mean I don’t want gory details. I need to know was it bad for her. I met this girl and she’s… never done… it.”

“Jesus Tommy, you’re not messing with someone underage are you?” Brendan goes from being big brother to former high school physics teacher in two seconds flat.

“Fuck, are you serious Bren? No! She’s actually in her thirties. I can’t go into details about it but she’s a fuckin’ virgin and I need to know what to expect when this finally goes down.”

Tommy is mortified and feels like an awkward teenager getting the sex talk for the first time. He doesn’t even want to think about what Brendan must be imagining about him.

“You couldn’t Google this shit instead of askin’ me?” Brendan says and laughs. Tommy throws up his hands and stands up to pace. “Sit down Tommy, I’m fuckin’ with you. Listen bro, I don’t know how serious you are about this girl but this is major. And especially since she’s held onto it for so long.”

Tommy sits again and looks at his brother. “Look, I don’t need the talk about how this needs to be taken seriously. She wants me to be her first and I told her I would. But I don’t want this to be something out of a horror movie either. Just tell me what goes down. Is she gonna fuckin’ gush blood? Will she scream? How bad is the pain gonna be for her?”

Brendan is torn, he feels weird about sharing details with Tommy about his first time with Tess.

“Look, I don’t think the two can compare. I wasn’t experienced either when Tess and I were together the first time. I’m sure as a woman gets older the trauma of it all won’t be as bad. Plus you’re experienced and … Jesus Tommy, I don’t know what to tell you. I feel weird right now.”

“Just forget I ever asked,” Tommy mutters and downs the scotch then thrusts the empty tumbler at Brendan for another drink.

“Anyway, let’s get the tea party started Tommy. You know Emily and Rosie aren’t gonna leave us alone until we try the tea.”

The brothers laugh and head back down the hallway to the playroom. Tommy does his best to shrug off the awkward feeling from the conversation he’d tried to have with Brendan. Soon Tess calls down and tells them that dinner is ready and Tommy pastes the tolerant smile on his face that he wears when dealing with his sister in law.

Tommy pauses at the top of the stairs and pulls his phone from his pocket.

[Tommy C.] Seline, ill see you sometime Sunday night.

It might be his last chance to hang with his favorite girl before she leaves for a new start in a sunnier locale.


	8. Hello and Goodbye

The weekend flies by with Brendan and the girls. He doesn’t see much of Tess other than at dinner on Friday night and Brendan confides in him that they’re in a rough patch in their relationship. She spends a lot of time at the boutique she started with a few friends and she sells the kind of breakable dust collectors that Tommy spends so much time trying not to knock off of the shelves.

They took the girls to the park and a few people came up and asked both of the brothers for autographs; one woman hit on Tommy hardcore but he brushed her off and told her to have some respect; that he’s spending time with his family.

They rented a few movies from Redbox and Tommy really enjoyed Captain America. Brendan has an incredible theater set up in his house and the girls had fun making popcorn for everyone. It was the kind of quality family time that he never had as a kid himself and he ate it up.

Tommy spent a good deal of Saturday night texting Elissa. Lying in the basement suite his brother had set up for him in case he ever needed to come and stay/live with them, he’d asked her all sorts of questions, wanting to know more about her.

[Tommy C.] Are ur parents still alive?

[Elissa C.] Never knew my dad. My mom is a drunk. She might be alive. Not Sure. Left home at 15.

[Tommy C.] Where did u go? Who did u live with?

[Elissa C.] On the streets for a while. Behind a Kmart of all places.

[Tommy C.] OMFG. Bet that was scary.

[Elissa C.] At the time now. Looking back now, yes.

[Tommy C.] How did you get into computers and all that high tech shit?

[Elissa C.] Community college. Got all kinds of grants and scholarships. Found my niche. Some of what I do is legal, some not. But it pays the bills.

Tommy had laughed at that last sentence. Obviously it does more than just pay the bills. But he wonders why she doesn’t leave her property. From the looks of her she doesn’t even go outside. Even her pool is indoors. She might say it’s because of her illness; the cancer and such, but he has a feeling there’s more to the story than that.

 

[Tommy C.] Don’t you wanna ask me anything? Get to know me better?

[Elissa C.] No.

[Tommy C.] Why not?

[Elissa C.] I know everything I need to know about you. And anything else I can always find out without even contacting you. I can get your SSN in three seconds.

[Tommy C.] Bullshit.

[Elissa C.] 555-85-9744

Tommy had stared at the phone in utter shock. It was definitely his social security number.

[Tommy C.] How in the fuck did u do that?

[Elissa C.] I told you, I’m a hacker for all intents and purposes and I can find out anything about you in a matter of minutes if not less.

Tommy hadn’t texted back that night but when Sunday morning had rolled around he hadn’t been able to resist communicating with her even though she still had him spooked. After brunch with Brendan and the kids he’d packed his bag in the car and headed back to Pittsburgh. Stopping for gas and something to drink he takes a break, lounging on a picnic table to the side of the gas station.

[Tommy C.] What made u move from TN to PA?

[Elissa C.] More job opportunities and less bad memories.

He can’t fathom exactly how bad her childhood must have been to make her strike out on her own at such a young age. Even when he’d left home at least he’d had his mom for a while.

[Tommy C.] What is it EXACTLY that you do?

[Elissa C.] I build cyber security programs and I find the faults in that type of program that others have made. I also do some less than legal hacking for certain individuals on the side.

That sounded like something he didn’t need to know about so he dropped the subject and went to something safer.

[Tommy C.] What time do u want me over Monday? And have u done ur homework?

[Elissa C.] Whenever you want to come over and yes. TBH, none of it really did much for me. I can’t relate to any of it since I’m not experienced.

Tommy shakes his head; he hadn’t thought of it like that. It boggles him mind that she’s never once in her lifetime come. When he went through puberty he’d fucking come all over the bed in the middle of the night just by dreaming about sex and he’d never done anything except jerked off at that point. He guesses it’s not something that happens to women. _Or_ , he thinks, _maybe there’s something wrong with Elissa in that department._

[Tommy C.] Look for me about noon. I have some errands to run and then I’ll be over.

What he is actually planning on doing is going to The Pleasure Chest and getting some shit that might help her. He knows there’s some sort of cream or jelly he can rub on her pussy that will help get her excited. Well, he thinks that’s how it works.

[Elissa C.] See you then. I’ll have the cash for you when you get here.

It bothers Tommy that she seems to constantly want to reassure him that she’ll have the money waiting for him. He’s getting paid to take something that most girls/women find sacred and she’s being so clinical about it.

Stopping in about a dozen blocks or so from his own place, Seline opens her door and graces him with her beautiful smile.

“Tommy, you son of a bitch.”

He doesn’t say anything, just pushes her up against the wall and puts his hands on both sides of her face as he kisses her roughly as he closes the door with his foot. He feels relief that there’s no need to perform or act a certain way, he’s here doing this because he likes Seline and because he wants to be inside of someone with money changing hands.

He picks her up and she wraps her legs around him. He maneuvers his way around moving boxes and piles of clothes and books and finally makes it to her bedroom. He places her gently on the bed as she reaches in the night stand for a condom. It’s they’re unspoken agreement and while he fucking hates wearing a hat he doesn’t argue and kinda digs watching her put it on him.

She sighs as he slides inside of her and he leans in to kiss her. Seline wraps her arms around Tommy’s shoulder and kisses him back feverishly.

“It’s been too long,” she says into his mouth and he thrust hard, pushing her up into the headboard in reply.

“Shut up, I got this, baby,” he laughs, it’s a private joke between them and she laughs with him. It’s not long though before they’re both panting and slick with sweat and his name is on her lips as she’s coming harder than ever before.

Afterwards they lie in bed, her head on his chest with an arm and leg thrown over him and he absentmindedly rubs her back.

“What was your first time like Seline?”

She looks up at him in surprise and laughs.

“Where the hell did that come from?”

“I’m just curious and there aren’t a whole lot of females in my life willing to talk to me after I fuck them so righteously.”

Seline fumbles with his gold chain as she thinks back to when she lost her virginity.

“It was hurried, sweaty… cramped since we were in the passenger seat of a Miata.”

Tommy tries to imagine this and chuckles, “Only you would try to screw in a fuckin’ Miata.”

“We didn’t have money for a hotel room, this was before my sudden windfall.”

Seline had lost her parents in a horrific accident and had been awarded a huge sum of money since the person responsible was pretty high profile and wealthy.

“Did it hurt much?”

“Hell yeah it hurt, and then there was the fact that the gear shift was also trying to invade my body at the same time his penis was.”

Seline has a way of making everything sound hilarious but it’s not what Tommy needs right now.

“What do you think he could have done to make it, I don’t know, easier, hurt less?”

“Aside from NOT doing it in a Mazda?”

Tommy clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes, “C’mon Seline, I’m being real here.”

“I don’t know, I mean, it probably wouldn’t have hurt as much if I hadn’t been so scared. I mean every muscle in my body was like a high tension wire. I think the pain is almost more mental than actually physical.”

Tommy kisses her forehead and shifts slightly to get more comfortable. He might stay here tonight; it’s happened before.

“So, what transpired that you’re finally moving to Florida and out of Shitsburgh?”

Seline is quiet for a moment and then she looks up at him, tears in her eyes.

“I met someone, Tommy.”

He doesn’t know how to feel. On one hand he’s incredibly happy for her. She deserves to have someone in her life that’s real, someone who isn’t out fucking everything with a pussy and a pulse for cash. On the other hand, it stings that she’s not going to be here anymore; his one steady friend that he can turn to whenever he starts feeling weird about his lifestyle.

“Does he make you happy, baby?”

“Very.”

“Then I wish you all the best. And I hope you at least text me every now and then to let me know you’re ok.”

“You’ll always be in my life, Tommy.”

He doesn’t stay the night, choosing to wait until she drift off to sleep before quietly leaving her house. He knows this was her way of telling him goodbye and he’s ok with that; well as okay as he can be.

Back at his apartment he pulls his phone out and sees that there’s a text from Elissa.

[Elissa C.] Why did you stop fighting professionally?

So she’s kept her word and been digging up info on him. But then again if that were true then she would know about Koba and his injury.

[Tommy C.] Found someone badder than me and he put a hurtin’ on me. Ended my career.

[Elissa C.] How so?

[Tommy C.] He broke several of my vertebrae. No one will back me now.

[Elissa C.] Do you miss it?

[Tommy C.] Yeah.

[Elissa C.] Do you think you could ever fight again? Not taking into account what anyone else thinks?

Tommy stares at his phone. No one’s ever asked him what he thought about it. The doctors, his brother, promoters, they’ve all told him it’s too risky for him to step inside the ring again. He never stopped to consider his own opinion on the matter.

[Tommy C.] Hadnt thought about it TBH.

Elissa doesn’t text back for the rest of the night and Tommy showers before falling into bed. He dreams of Sparta, of fighting his brother but Brendan is wearing Tommy’s face.


	9. The Pleasure Chest

Right around eight in the morning Tommy heads out for The Pleasure Chest. He’s not a frequent customer but he’s been there several times for items relating to specific requests he’s gotten from clients. Erica, his role play girl, has made quite a few requests so he comes here sometimes for props of a sexual nature. Who knew they made policemen’s nightsticks with a cock on the end? Tommy hadn’t before he’d walked through these doors.

Once inside he gets the same feeling of sensory overload. Passing by row after row of insane devices he sees a pair of thigh cuffs and grabs them; Samm, one of his even-week women who never asks for anything other than some good old fashioned sex has a kinky side she’s not sharing with Tommy and he thinks these might be what she needs to let the bad side come out to play. He gets a little excited thinking about getting her on her knees and bound in front of him.

Almost everywhere he looks he spots something that reminds him of one of his ladies, past and present. He’s had a few clients drop him but it’s always been an amicable parting of ways. Some decide they can’t play around behind their spouses back anymore and others decide it’s just not for them to pay a gigolo for sex no matter how good he is.

Then there are the ones he’s had to drop because they catch serious feelings and want more than just the service he provides. He’s had to get two restraining orders thus far and he hopes that’s not something he’ll have to worry about any more. He shivers uncontrollably when he thinks about Gudrun; he hopes he’s heard the last from and of her.

In part he’s sure most of the trouble he’s had with clients is his own fault. He shouldn’t get so personal with these women, shouldn’t listen to them when they feel the need to unload emotionally but he can’t seem to help it. There’s that part of him that feels like he _should_ listen to their problems because he’s boning them. It always complicates things but its not something he can shut off very easily.

The man behind the counter ogles him openly every time Tommy passes by causing him to sigh heavily when he can’t find the cream he’s looking for. Knowing he’ll have to ask the dude for help he puts on his best fuck-off face and heads towards him.

“Hello strong and surly, what can I do you for?” Jake (as identified by his boner-shaped name-tag) asks and winks once Tommy is within ear-shot.

“Look man, I ain’t got not problem with who you stick it in as long as you understand it ain’t gonna be me, yeah?”

Jakes nods and straightens his backbone; he’s terribly sorry that this guy doesn’t pitch or catch for his team but understands that he apparently needs assistance. Tommy nods back and then clears his throat; he looks away as he talks, anywhere and everywhere but at Jake.

“I remember reading somewhere about some kinda cream or some shit like that you can buy to get women worked up, I mean, turned on. You know what I’m talkin’ about?”

“You must mean the female arousal products. Here, let me show you.”

Tommy follows the man who takes him to a section he’d walked through several times. If they’d been snakes he’d have been bitten.

“As you can see we have several kinds but we sell the most of this kind to repeat customers.”

Jake holds up a small black box with the word ON printed in white lettering.

“This is oil-based, it’s all natural and I have many customers who swear by it. There are other kinds as you can see though.”

“This’ll do,” Tommy says and then clears his throat when Jake turns to walk away, “One more question. What would be the best kind of lube to use if it’s someone’s first time?”

Jake wants to ask what he means by first time, he could mean anally but really it doesn’t matter. Holes are holes and the first time in any hole requires some assistance to avoid pain and injury. Walking one aisle over he picks a small bottle emblazoned with SWISS NAVY.

“Silicone based, requires very little and slicker than shit through a gooses ass. Anything else I can help you find?”

“Nah man, thanks, I think I have all I need.”

One hundred and fifteen dollars later, Tommy leaves with his purchases and heads out of the city only to turn around. He parks in front of Selina’s house and watches her as she’s carrying in more packing boxes. He hadn’t seen her in a long while before last night; truth be told he hadn’t thought about her that much but now that he knows she’s going away he misses her. Typical, you don’t appreciate the people in your life until they’re gone or leaving.

He steps out of his car and wolf whistles at her as she bends over to pick up a roll of packing tape that she’d dropped. Her ass looks fine in those yoga pants she’s wearing. She jumps up, and turns to look; when she sees its Tommy she drops everything in her hands and lifts her shirt up to flash her bare breasts at him while laughing. Typical Selina.

Jogging up to her he kisses her cheek and grabs up what she was carrying to take it inside for her.

“What are you doing here Tommy?” She asks as she follows him inside and closes the door.

“Just came by to see if I could help with anything. I have some time to kill before my next gig.”

Selina laughs and tapes the bottom of a box, “You kill me the way you call them gigs. Aren’t gigs for musicians?”

“I _am_ a musician,” he jokes, “I play pussies and make all kinds of beautiful music come out of the women who own them.”

“That you do,” Selina says and Tommy like the shiver he sees as she thinks about last night. “Anyone I know?”

“Nah, she’s new. She’s uh… she’s a virgin.”

“So that’s where your line of questioning came from last night. Shit, seriously? Is she old enough that you aren’t going to get into any trouble?” Selina pauses momentarily to look at Tommy with one eyebrow raised.

“Selina, c’mon; you know me better than that. She’s in her thirties. I don’t know why she’s still a virgin but it ain’t because she’s a deformed freak or anything.”

“You sure you oughtta be doing this? I mean, no offense, but losing it to a gigolo isn’t exactly a woman’s dream situation for being deflowered from what I’ve heard.”

“None taken, bitch. And yeah, I gotta be honest, I’m not feeling great about it,” Tommy says as he starts putting more boxes together for Selina, “but she called me and she gave me twelve grand as a retainer, like I’m some kind of lawyer or somethin’.”

“Twelve grand,” Selina says and makes fake choking noises, “She must want the D from you pretty bad. I mean, really, what can you say? You’re not forcing it on her and she called you to request your services.”

Tommy folds the last of the boxes from the stack and sits down on Selina’s couch to look at her. She’s not classically beautiful but a better word to describe her would be stunning. Somehow the sum of her parts works and Tommy feels sad that he’s never taken the time before now to appreciate just how nice she is to look at. Not only that but she’s funny as fuck, smarter than anyone else he knows and can drink him under the table. She’s pretty much perfect but so far out of his league that he’s never even considered anything serious with her. She deserves so much better than his busted, whoring ass. He can only hope that the man waiting for her in Florida is worthy of her. The thought makes him feel protective of her.

“Yeah, I guess. It still feels wrong in a lot of ways,” he mumbles as he picks lint off of his jeans.

Selina tapes the last box and then crawls on the seat beside of him, curling up close and laying her head on his shoulder. “Then again,” she mumbles, “it’s actually kind of an ideal situation for a woman in her thirties. She can pick someone she finds attractive and not have to worry about if they share ideas and views, and if the chemistry isn’t right she doesn’t even have to explain why she doesn’t want to see him again. You should have seen Michael when I told him I didn’t want to have sex with him again. It’s like I grew a third tit and then vomited blood in his face.”

Tommy laughs at the visual and kisses Selina on the forehead.

“She’s also got cancer,” he admits, the truth slipping from his mouth and tasting bitter as it leaves. The very word cancer is one that he’d banned from his vocabulary after it took his mother in such a horrible way.

“Wow, that’s some really fuckin’ heavy shit right there Conlon. You sure YOU want to get involved in this?” Selina pushes off of him and leans back to look him in the face. He’d told her everything about his past after they’d become casual lovers instead of having a paid partnership. “I know you and I know you’ll feel like you have to somehow save her and if she dies you’ll lose it.”

It’s nothing that Tommy hasn’t thought about himself; he’s still raw from his mother dying of cancer and it’s been a lot of years since then.

“It’s not up to you to save her, Tommy. Maybe the doctors can or maybe God might but not you. You understand that, right?” Selina grabs his chin and forces him to look at her. He sees true worry and compassion in her expression and he’s touched by it.

Tommy nods but he’s not convincing himself or the woman next to him.

“Will you please keep in touch with me; let me know how this turns out? Like I said, I’ll be here til the end of the month and then I’m outtie. I might come back when the house is sold, if I have to…”

Tommy looks at Seline and blurts out, “You wouldn’t think about selling this place to me would you? I could make a pretty big down payment. Then you’d HAVE to keep in touch with me, as my landlord. It wouldn’t take me too long to pay it off if I keep working as much as I have. Plus I’m investing in Brendan’s sports complex and I’ll be getting returns on that I’m sure.”

“Say no more. Consider this place yours. This saves me the trouble of putting it on the market and having to hire some uppity cunt to sell it for me. For fucks sake, I’ll leave the goddamned furniture for you if you want; it gives me a reason to buy new shit. NOW I’m excited.”

Tommy thinks about taking Selina to the bedroom and sealing the deal with some quick and nasty sex but he can’t; he doesn’t have time to clean up before he’s due at Elissa’s and he’d never give anyone sloppy seconds. Rather than risk doing it anyway he kisses her again and stands.

“Guess I’ll head out early and start earning my down payment.” He smiles at his friend and feels an ache he can’t put a name to in his heart. “You sure you wanna move so far away from me?”

“You sure you don’t wanna come with me?” She counters and smiles up at him.

“I ain’t a Florida kinda guy…” he says and shrugs his shoulders.

“I know you’re not. I’ll miss you Conlon, but I have to head south and find out what might be waiting for me down there.”

She stands and hugs him tight before shoving him away and swiping at her face, laughing with embarrassment; he’s never seen her shed a single tear before and so he pretends he doesn’t see this.

“Take care, baby,” he says on his way out the door, he doesn’t dare look back at her.

He wipes a tear of his own as he pulls out onto the street and heads towards Elissa and her castle. Tommy doesn’t deal with loss of any kind very well and in his mind he starts a dreaded countdown until the end of the month.


	10. The Glass Elevator

Pulling up outside of the castle he feels nervous and anxious. With all the women he’s been with in this line of work he’s never felt the doubt he’s experiencing now. He doesn’t know how to even approach it. She’s inexperienced and while that should make him feel more confident it doesn’t. She’s never had sex so she has nothing to gage it against; he could be horrible and how would she really know? But there’s this part of him that he can’t deny and it wants to make sure that her first time is everything good and nothing bad.

Tommy opens the trunk of the Chevelle and grabs the two things he bought for Elissa out of the bag and pushes them into his jacket pocket. He also grabs his overnight bag and his travel case full of toiletries. Sighing deeply he reaches the front door and is about to ring the bell when Jackie opens it up and motions for him to come in.

“You’re early,” she says and the smile she’d worn on his first visit isn’t there. She looks nervous and worried.

“Is that a problem?”

“No, not at all. Elissa just isn’t ready yet,” Jackie says and finds the wherewithal to smile finally. It looks fake to Tommy and he narrows his eyes at her.

“I can come back later if I need to…”

“It’s okay Tommy, come on up to my suite. Jackie, how about some soup for me? Tommy, is roast beef okay with you?”

He isn’t hungry but he nods yes because he can’t believe how much worse Elissa looks than just a few days ago. This must be the reason Jackie looked like she did; anyone with eyes would be worried when they looked at this woman.

Tommy isn’t surprised when she steps into an elevator that takes them to the fourth floor of her home. It’s glass and he gets a better view of just how fucking grand this place is as they ascend. Elissa leans up against the back wall and her breathing is labored.

“Hey,” he says and sets his bags down on the elevator floor, “Are you going to be okay? Should I call a doctor?”

“The doctor… just left. I’ll be okay in a few, I always am.” She’s paler than any living creature Tommy has ever seen and he’s quick to catch her when she starts to sway to the side. She steadies herself on his arm and smiles. “I’m okay now I think. It passes pretty quickly. But you’ll have to excuse me for a few minutes; the nausea is at the tail end of it.

The elevator stops and Tommy grabs both his bags in one hand and follows close behind her down the hallways to a tremendous set of double doors. They’re carved out of solid oak and look too heavy for Elissa to open but she pushes them wide with a small gesture. They have to be perfectly balanced for her to open them that easily.

Her suite is opulent, even more than he’d expected. It’s decorated in deep jewel tones and makes him feel like he’s underwater. He’d thought for sure that it would be done in white and pale pastels but it’s the opposite; it looks more like a man’s room than something a female would inhabit and he wonders if she’d just never redone it after she bought the place. The dark colors surrounding her make her look almost see through.

“Have a seat, make yourself comfortable and Jackie will have lunch up soon. I won’t be long.”

She disappears through another set of huge doors and he assumes it’s the bathroom. He looks around at the tremendous bed and the sitting area; this part of her suite alone is larger than his entire apartment and probably still is if he were to combine his with his neighbors. He listens for sounds of Elissa being sick but then figures that the thick wooden doors would muffle the noises she might make. He finds a seat on the couch and within five minutes Jackie is rolling in a cart of food that changes Tommy’s mind about not being hungry. It’s like something you’d see in a commercial for a fancy restaurant and it’s all served on what he imagines is real silver.

Jackie is wearing the fake smile as she sets everything out on the dining table set inside what he realizes is part of one of the castle’s turrets. He stands to help her but she has it all arranged by the time he gets there. His breath is taken away by the view from the window. It looks out onto the back lawn and there are gardens with statuary and a pool. He can even make out the edge of a tennis court.

“Go ahead and help yourself. She won’t eat, she never does after treatment.”

Jackie turns to leave and Tommy stares after her. Something about her just doesn’t sit right with him and he can’t pinpoint the reason. She puts him on edge.

His phone vibrates in his pocket and he jumps. He’d forgotten to leave it in the car. He checks and sees a text from Selina.

[Selina G.] Thinking about you. And thank you for helping me today. Will get you something in writing about the house soon.

[Tommy C.] Ill b busy this week. Ive been rented for 7 days. Will stop by next week b4 u leave.

He turns the phone off and buries it deep in his bag.

“You don’t have to do that. You’re free to keep your phone on and with you while you’re here. I don’t mind.”

Elissa looks better but still more like death than any living thing ever should. Tommy pulls a chair out for her as she approaches and helps her settle at the table.

He pushes a bowl of what he thinks is broth at her and she grimaces. “Nothing for me thanks, but please eat. I’d hate to see that roast beef go to waste.”

Tommy doesn’t want to upset her and his stomach grumbles loudly so he dives in and within minutes has devoured everything except her broth. He pushes back from the table and pats his stomach. Smiling over at Elissa he laughs, “I feel bad for eating in front of you.”

“Don’t. I rather enjoyed watching you.” She smiles back and it seems like the effort really costs her. “Look, I hope you don’t mind if we delay, um, business until tomorrow. I wasn’t expecting a treatment today but Doctor Laszlo showed up unannounced and decided it was for the best after he did some blood work. And please don’t mind Jackie, she’s not happy that I’m forcing her to take a paid vacation this week while you’re here.”

“You’re the boss,” he mumbles and smiles at her. “So, if I’m not deflowering you tonight what shall we do?”

Even though this place is immense, the thought of being inside this place for a whole week already has him feeling like the walls are closing in on him.

“I have a pretty good theater set up and between Netflix, Redbox Instant, Amazon, Vudu and Hulu Plus I don’t think there is anything you might want to watch that I don’t have or can’t get. I have an indoor and an outdoor pool, tennis and basketball courts, I even have a two lane bowling alley in the basement.”

She doesn’t look like she’s up for anything physical so he decides that movies will be the best idea.

“Movie night sounds like a winner to me,” he says and stands, gathering up his dirty dishes and piling everything back onto the cart. ‘I’ll just change into some shorts if you don’t mind me being casual.”

Elissa nods and stands, heading over to push a button on the wall. He hears Jackie’s voice come over a speaker.

“We’re all finished. Come gather the cart, finalize the meal deliveries and then I expect not to see you here on the premises again until next week. Enjoy Ibiza.”

There’s such authority in her voice even with her being so apparently ill. Tommy smiles to himself as he digs through his bag and finds his favorite shorts emblazoned with TAPOUT across the ass.

“I also have a full gym in the basement, feel free to use it as much as you’d like. I made sure to bring in a heavy bag and a speed bag and I watched some of your fights to determine what kind of hand wraps and gloves you like.”

Tommy shakes his head; this chick doesn’t miss a thing and he can’t say that he doesn’t appreciate it. At least being able to train while he’s here will keep his mind off of the fact that he’s here, inside these walls for seven days.

Elissa isn’t shy at all about watching Tommy as he undresses. Why should she be? She already saw his cock within minutes of meeting him. He turns to face her as he strips down to his boxer briefs and he feels himself harden as her eyes linger on his bulge. Her mouth is slightly open and shaped like a perfect o. She sighs and smiles up at him before blushing and looking away.

“Sorry,” she mutters.

“Don’t be, look all you want.” He walks over to her and brushes up against her before grabbing her hand and placing it on his cock. “Touch it if you want to, it’s better that you get used to it slowly. I don’t want you to be scared at all. I want to make this good for you.”

Elissa turns in her seat to face him and runs a finger across the length of it through his underwear. Her gaze is intense, like she’s examining something so interesting that she can’t tear her eyes away. She tugs at the fabric and slowly pulls his briefs down until his erection springs out. She smiles and wraps her hand around it, her fingers are ice cold and Tommy shivers.

“Will you…” she starts but her face turns bright red and she stops.

“Ask me baby, its ok.” Gigolo Tommy has finally showed up and he feels more at ease now that she’s touched him and also now that she has some color to her skin.

“Will you jerk off and let me watch? I want to know how you please yourself so maybe I’ll have a better idea of what to do when the time comes.” Her eyes are wide as she makes her request and he nods his agreement.

“Where do you want me?” He asks and she points to the bed. He walks backward, his cock in his hand and he reaches into his jacket pocket for the lube he bought earlier. What better to way to find out if it’s as good as Old Jake led him to believe.

Lying back on the bed he feels Elissa make her way onto the mattress opposite him. He props up on one of the huge fluffy pillows and lubes his cock up. The shit is slicker than anything he’s ever felt and the sensation has his balls tight up against his body with just a few strokes.

Elissa is watching his hands as he watches her face and it’s a fucking turn on and a half. He makes slow movements with his right fist, running his grip up and down the entire length of his erection while using his other hand to fondle his balls. If she’s gonna learn he might as well teach her right; too many women ignore the balls when they play with a man.

Tommy presses his head back into the pillow and thinks for a split second how he’s never done this before. And yet, he hadn’t hesitated at all when she’d asked him for it.

“Can I… can I try?” She’s reaching for the lube before he even agrees and when she’s readied her hand he moves his own. He’s pleased when she reaches with both and mimics the motions he’d made.

“Is this right?”

“Baby, that feels so goddamned good,” he moans and he’s not playing it up at all. It’s not his first hand job but she’s already surpassing what any other woman has ever given him this way. It won’t be long before he’s coming. “Go a little bit faster now…”

He’s panting and moving his gaze from her hands to her face. She’s biting her bottom lip in a way that makes him want to throw her back onto the bed and fuck her out in a frenzy.

She looks up at him and gives him a half smile and it does him in.

“Fuck, I’m gonna come,” he gasps and before she can move he spurts all over her robe. His body spasms and he shakes the whole bed as he ejaculates.

She’s grinning from ear to ear and he can’t help but return her smile.

“I did ok?”

Tommy doesn’t think before he leans in and kisses her lips. She tastes like Listerine and toothpaste and he’s reminded that she’s not well.

“You did amazing,” he breathes and then looks at the mess he made, “I’m sorry about your robe.”

“Shit, no worries, I have a whole closet of nothing but these, they’re all I wear. If you want to shower or just clean up the bathroom is through there,” she says and points it out to him. I’ll make up some popcorn while you get ready. Take the elevator all the way to the basement and you’ll see the sign for the theater.

She smiles and walks into what he assumes is a closet while he heads to the bathroom. This is going to be an interesting week to say the least.


	11. Boca

There is an actual fucking movie theater sign hanging over the door. Granted it’s a miniature of what you’d find at a real theater but it looks the same as a marquee. He chuckles, thinking how jealous Brendan would be if he saw this and how more than likely he would end up with one too.

He can smell popcorn and he walks in to see a huge plasma, more than likely at least 80 inches and all sorts of seating choices. He smiles over at Elissa as she scoops the popcorn out of the popper and into a huge bowl. There are two actual fountain sodas sitting on a table in front of a plush looking loveseat and so that’s where he heads. He watches every move Elissa makes, looking for any sign that she’s feeling bad again or might need his assistance. Her color looks much better and she’s humming something he can’t make out. It’s a complete turn-around from what he had seen earlier.

She walks over with the popcorn and he notices that the light violet shade of the new robe she’s wearing complements her dark hair and eyes. It gives her that other-worldly look he remembers from the first time they met. He pats the cushion next to him and pulls her close when she sits down. She tenses up for a second but then sort of melts into his side as she hands him a gigantic remote control with more buttons that a computer keyboard.

“Ha ha,” he laughs and passes it back to her, “I’m still struggling with my phone, you better do the honors.”

She snorts and the sound tickles him, it’s so unladylike and it makes him happy to know that she’s loosening up more and more around him. His biggest fear had been how clinical she’d acted during their first meeting and now he’s seeing less and less of that.

She punches a few buttons and pulls up a menu that lists all the movie apps she’d mentioned earlier.

“I think Redbox Instant probably has the best choices,” Elissa says as she chooses that logo. They decide on _We’re The Millers_ and it proves to be every bit as raunchy as the synopsis promised. Between the two of them they emptied the popcorn bowl during the movie and Tommy was pleased to see her eat something.

Afterwards they walk out onto the back patio and sit by the pool. It’s a little too chilly to swim in the outside pool but Elissa says that maybe tomorrow they’ll take a dip in the indoor one.

The sun is setting and the smell of honeysuckle is thick in the air. Tommy breathes in deeply, feeling content just to be sitting here enjoying Elissa’s company without any pressure to perform.

“What’s it like? To be an escort?”

Her question comes out of the blue and her voice is hesitant, like she’s afraid it might offend him and he wants to put her at ease so he answers immediately.

“It’s never dull. I enjoy it for the most part; I’ve met some truly amazing women and some not so amazing women. But there’s more good than bad.” Tommy chuckles at two memories that always without fail come to the forefront when he thinks about his work.

“What?”

He shakes his head but he can’t stop the smile.

“Tell me!” Elissa leans forward in her seat and smiles so brightly at him that he can’t stop himself from sharing. He can’t imagine that Elissa knows either of these women so he feels safe sharing these stories with her.

“Well, first there was Annalise, the one who sort of turned me on to this business. I don’t see her anymore since her husband moved them to DC, but after I started in this line of work she referred me to her friend Heather.”

Laughing he remembers how much fun he’d had with Heather. She’d been more adventurous than any woman he’d ever known up to that point. “She decided once that she wanted to install a sex swing in her condo. But it wasn’t just for her; she wanted me in it with her. Long story short, we ended up tearing the ceiling down. I thought I was gonna die when that shit came tumbling down on top of us. First and last time with that sort of apparatus.”

Elissa looks totally enthralled so he decides to tell her his most embarrassing story.

“And then there was Marie. One of the nicest, sweetest women you’d ever meet. Beautiful, soccer mom, dedicated to her kids but get her behind closed doors and it was like another personality took over. Total dominatrix; made me pick out a safe word and shit. So anyway, here I am, I’ve been seeing her for about a month; her husband traveled a lot so I visited frequently while the kids were in school. She has me trussed up on the bed and is doling out some punishment with a crop. I mean, it didn’t really hurt, I wasn’t really in to it but she liked it. So she’s mid-whack and here comes her husband busting in the door and I’m thinking I’m a dead man. I’m breaking the fuckin’ headboard to get loose and all they can argue about is why she never spanks him or ties him up like that. I literally ran out of the house naked and drove home with my clothes in my lap. I thought their gardener was going to die when I rounded the corner with my junk flapping in the wind.”

They’re both laughing now and Tommy loves the sound of hers. It’s clear like a bell and comes from her toes.

“Is that the only time you’ve gotten caught?” Her eyes are sparkly and huge in the dim light of the theater and he realizes he’s leaning closer to get a better look at them.

“Yeah. The rule now is that if my client is married we don’t meet at their home. I’m not trying to get shot by some jealous man. Or woman for that matter.”

“Woman?”

Tommy chuckles and says, “Yeah, I have a couple of clients who are in lesbian relationships but call me for services.”

“Wow,” is all she manages before leaning into his shoulder again.

“You wanna watch another movie?” He asks then puts his arm around her.

“I don’t think so,” she says and stands, “I’m pretty beat. I think I’ll go to bed. You have free reign of the house so do whatever you’d like.”

“Don’t you want me to come to bed with you?” He’s a little shocked that she seems to be dismissing him.

“I… Tommy I’m not ready to have sex, not yet.”

Tommy stands and puts his hands on her arms, rubbing to warm her skin up. “We don’t have to have sex. We’ll do that when you’re ready and not a minute before. But let me throw this out there, there are plenty of ways I can make you feel good without takin’ your cherry.”

His voice is low and scratchy and his lids are heavy with desire as he looks at her. The thought of putting his mouth on her pussy and tasting what no other man has ever touched has him completely turned out.

“I wanna bury my face in you, I wanna show you what it feels like to come… hard.”

Elissa shivers and looks up at him. He watches as her expression alternates between fear and arousal and he grins crookedly as when he sees her squeeze her thighs together.

“Okay,” she whispers and shivers against his touch.

He picks her up in his arms and kisses her before carrying her inside and into the elevator. Once they make it to her suite he places her feet on the floor and unties the belt of her robe. He holds in his gasp as he sees her nearly nude for the first time. She’s not exactly emaciated but comes close; he can count her ribs and it saddens him to see how sunken in her stomach is. He smiles down at her then gently lays her back on the bed before pulling her pink lace panties down her legs.

Her legs are tense and she’s already breathing heavily; she seems near panic.

“Relax baby. I’ll stop any time you want me to, okay?”

She doesn’t say anything but nods and grasps at the pillow behind her head; her eyes never leave his face as he positions himself between her legs and pushes at her thighs to gain access.

It looks no different than any other pussy he’s seen but he knows the difference is a thin membrane up inside of it. What he plans on undertaking has nothing to do with that for now. Spreading her open he leans in and gently runs his tongue from the bottom of her slit up to the bundle of nerves. He doesn’t apply much pressure at all but she jumps like she’s been shocked when his tongue touches her clit.

“Oh…,” she gasps and Tommy blows gently on it before touching his tongue to it again.

“How’s that feel, baby?”

‘It’s… intense,” she gasps and her hips buck over and over every time he makes contact.

He sucks on her clit gently, pulling it into his mouth and running his tongue in circles over it then releasing it. He watches her face to learn what she seems to like most. Her eyes roll back in her head a few times and he realizes that it does more for her when he flicks at her nub with his tongue than anything else. So he starts out slow and light and matches her breathing to his actions. The more rapid her breaths come the faster he licks at her.

“Oh… I don’t… please don’t stop,” she cries out and her back arches up off the bed. He goes in for the kill, sucking hard on her center, not releasing it until he feels her body respond and he gives Elissa her very first orgasm. She thrashes underneath him and cries out his name repeatedly along with some less than ladylike curses. He takes his mouth away and watches as her cunt contracts as she comes. It’s beautiful and he takes a lot of pride in introducing her to this.

“Jesus,” she pants and pushes up into a sitting position. Tommy smiles up at her, pleased as fuck as he leans over on one elbow. Her hand goes down and covers her cleft as her body goes through minute aftershocks. Her nipples stick out in hardened peaks and her heaving chest is beautiful to Tommy. He did that to her.

“Congratulations, baby,” he says. “You want another one?”

“Oh my fucking god, yes please.”


	12. An envelope with your name on it

Elissa is breathless and worn out but pleasurably so. Her chest heaves as Tommy crawls up on the bed beside of her. He runs his finger down the valley between her breasts and back up again to her neck. She can feel his erection resting heavily against her thigh and for a brief second she thinks about telling him to do it now, to take her virginity so she can be done with it once and for all. God knows she’s wet enough and her body is craving what she can only imagine is the feel of that tremendous cock sliding deep inside of her.

But in all honesty, she wants to stretch this out further. She’s finding that she enjoys his company for reasons other than what he came here to do and she’s afraid that if he takes her now there won’t be any reason for him to stay the week. There’s no way she can trust herself to be alone, not when then sickness comes on so rapidly and she doesn’t want to call Jackie to come back from Ibiza early.

Once her breathing calms and she can formulate a proper sentence she points to the bureau across from the bed and says, “There’s an envelope up there with your name on it; it’s the money we agreed on.”

Tommy’s laugh is coarse and he rolls away from her to rest his arms on his forehead. If all she can think about is money after he’s just given her three orgasms in a row then either he’s doing something wrong or she was faking that shit.

“Elissa, listen,” he says as he rolls back over propping up on his elbow to look down at her, “I ain’t worried about the money right now. You shouldn’t be either. I’m here for the week and I want you to enjoy this. I know I will. So let’s leave the money issue for seven days from now. Yeah?”

Elissa nods, she’s surprised, she’d thought that he would have wanted the money up front so that things might go easier with that out of the way. He can have it his way though; it’s a good sum of money but money doesn’t really mean a whole lot to someone like her who has so much of it they’ll never be able to spend it all.

Elissa could never do another job for as long as she lives and she’d never have to worry about her finances. No, she worries about dying, she worries about Jackie and what will become of her once she’s gone and about people taking advantage of Jackie because she’s the beneficiary should she die. Jackie is an intelligent woman but she doesn’t have much common sense when it comes to financial matters and while Elissa doesn’t feel capable of even coming close to blowing through her fortune she has no doubt that Jackie could find a way.

But she’s feeling better now, in this moment, than she has in months, close to the old Elissa, and she wonders how much of that has to do with Tommy and what he’s just done to her and for her. She can feel his cock press into her hip again as he rolls back towards her and she reaches out to touch it. He watches his expression grow heavier when she makes contact.

“Is it bad if you get an erection and don’t get, um, relief?” She’s heard of the dreaded blue balls but frankly had always thought it was a load of shit.

“Every horny teenage boy would tell you yes but it’s not true. It’s not like it’s going to explode or fall off if I don’t come. I spend 70 percent of my life hard and I promise you I don’t get off 70 percent of the time.”

“Can I…” she doesn’t finish but instead slides gingerly down the bed and looks intently at his cock. It’s thick and has defined veins running up the shaft; it intimidates the hell out of her. Looking up at his face she thrills at the sight of his heavily lidded eyes and the way his lips pucker with concentration every time she exhales and her breath rolls across his cock. All she can think about is pleasing him. Using her hands she pushes him onto his back and crawls into the gap between his spread legs.

Leaning her head forward she sticks her tongue out and tastes him. She watches him shiver and smiles up at him before encircling the head of his member with her mouth. She runs her tongue around the knob end and then releases it.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she says and meaning it literally. She starts feeling anxious but she forces the anxiety back, determined to learn what it takes to make a man come with her mouth.

“You’re doin’ fine baby,” he half whispers, half moans and puts his arms behind his head. His biceps are tremendous and she thinks he reminds her of the Adonis statue that graces her garden pathway.

Her hands shake as she takes him by the root of his cock and holds him, feeling the steady rhythm of his pulse in his erection before putting her mouth on the head of it again. This time she takes more of him into her mouth and he growls. The sound seems to travel directly to her swollen clit and she presses her hips down into the mattress to try an quell her own desires.

Tommy’s face is a pure image sex and desire as he watches her suck a cock for the first time. Her mouth is warm and wet and her hands remember what he’s shown her earlier. She fondles his balls gently with one hand and assists her mouth in stimulating all of his length with the other. He can’t stop the small thrusting motion he makes, he wants to feel himself inside of her and if it’s only to be her mouth tonight that’s fine with him.

“I want to taste you,” she says and it brings him close to the edge.

“You sure?” He moans, wanting nothing more than to come in her mouth and watch her swallow him down.

“Yes,” she breathes and then takes as much of him into her as she can.

“Suck harder,” he commands gruffly and does a half sit up, causing his abs to tighten and outline his six pack. She obliges his request and he growls and wraps his right hand into her long hair.

“Fuck, I’m so close. Make me come baby…”

Elissa takes her mouth off of his shaft and applies her tongue to his balls, sucking each one gently into her mouth and watching his face to see if it pleases him. He’s given her amazing pleasure tonight and she wants to return the favor to him.

“Jesus,” he gasps and presses back into the pillow. She can feel his testicles pull away and up into his body; she thinks this is probably a sign that he’s about to come.

Taking him back into her mouth she sucks on the head as her hands work everything else. He watches until his vision blurs.

“Baby, now, I’m…” But he can’t finish his sentence because his cock erupts inside of Elissa’s mouth. His hips thrust up violently into her orifice and he feels her doing her best to swallow what he’s giving. His fingers are still tight in her hair and he grunts wildly. The orgasm subsides slowly and he can feel her tongue running up and down his swiftly softening member.

He peeks down to see that she’s staring up at him and he can’t really place the expression. He reaches down and pulls her up on top of him, feeling her hip bones pressing hard into his stomach as she comes to rest on him. He doesn’t say anything, just holds her to him and eventually he rolls onto his side with her still in his arms and listens as her breathing becomes even.

He wonders about this woman, what her story is. It seems she had a rough start and while she’s doing ok financially now she doesn’t seem to be doing ok when it comes to personal matters. Something has her scared to death and it’s not the cancer. She lives in what amounts to a compound surrounded by cameras. She never leaves and has exactly one friend whom she admitted she’s not sure would stick around if she wasn’t being paid to. Where is her family? Why does she live in exile here?

Selina’s warning about it not being his job to save her echoes in his head and he knows he should listen but he can’t. Elissa is wasting away here, so lonely that she trusts a fucking gigolo with her life for a week, to be all alone with him without knowing much of anything about him.

He slides his arm out from under her, slowly edges out of the bed and roams out into the castle. She’d told him that he had free reign and he thinks now might be the time to learn a little more about Elissa without having to ask her directly. There’s a part of him that has to know, even though he’s made it a point here recently to abstain from becoming so personally involved in his clients lives.

He doesn’t bother dressing, knowing that it’s just the two of them in this place. He wanders into several guest bedrooms and then into what he is sure is Jackie’s suite of rooms. He doesn’t move in beyond the doorway, seeing no reason to explore here.

Travelling down to the main floor he finds the kitchen and opens the immense refrigerator, snagging a bottle of orange juice. He smiles as he thinks about why he’s so damned thirsty; after eating her out for over an hour and then mouth breathing through one hell of a blow job no wonder he’s parched. He didn’t even have to tell her not to use teeth on him.

He follows the hallway through the great room and sees some glass doors. It looks like a library or a study to him and he thinks if there’s anything personal to Elissa it would probably be in there.

He walks around and sees row after row of shelving full of books before coming to a picture of what has to be Elissa as a very young girl. She’s wearing a yellow sundress and it appears to be some kind of school photo. It’s yellowed and in a very old frame; the picture appears to be stuck to the glass as he picks it up. Her face bears sadness and a wisdom beyond her years. He knows this look because it’s the same one he wears in his childhood photos. He sits the picture back down and walks around the room, looking at different things, not seeing much else about her as he drinks the entire gallon of OJ. As far as gleaning info about Elissa Carter he has to admit that this adventure is a bust.

He’s not sleepy so he decides to give himself a tour of all four levels of the house. He finds the gym in the basement and discovers that there’s a sauna and a steam room adjacent. The equipment in the gym is state of the art and looks to him as if it’s hardly ever been used. He finds the gloves and wraps she told him about and she got the brand and size correct. He thinks about working the speed bag naked, something he’d never get to do at Colts but decides he’s too lazy to wrap his hands now.

Tommy tosses the empty OJ container into the trash but something already in there catches his eye. It’s a torn up piece of paper but he can make out the words chemo cocktail and Laszlo on it. He doesn’t know why but he’s compelled to dig it out and take it back upstairs with him. Elissa hasn’t moved an inch when he comes back into the room and he leans down, placing his ear close to her mouth and holds his own breath until he hears her take in air and exhale. Tommy crawls into bed beside of her and does something unusual for him; he pulls Elissa close and closes his eyes.

His last conscious thought is to wonder why the name Laszlo is so familiar to him.


	13. Retrospect

Elissa is up before the sun; she never sleeps more than a few hours at a stretch but she smiles at the feel of Tommy’s arms encircling her as she swims to the surface of consciousness. He’s heavy and her skin sweats where his touches it but she prefers his transferred body heat to how she usually wakes up; shivering so hard her teeth chatter.

Sliding away from him in stages so she doesn’t wake him up she sits on the edge of the bed and notes how her body feels different this morning. There is a heaviness to her breasts and she imagines it’s the kisses he placed there lending weight to them; her cleft is sore but not in a bad way and she knows it’s from the way he manipulated her so masterfully into three earth shattering releases with his lips and tongue. She smiles and runs a hand through her tangled mane before standing unsteadily. She grabs Tommy’s keys and heads down to move his car into the garage. She doesn’t want anyone assuming anything when they see his car parked outside.

She knows in a little while her day people will be here to prepare food, work on the estate, do the routine cleaning and deliver things needed to keep this place stocked and running. They’ll leave in a matter of hours and she’ll be alone with Tommy again. She also knows that Dr. Laszlo will be back as well and she’s determined to call him and cancel her treatment. She feels good this morning and knows that she won’t if he comes. Sometimes it seems to her that the treatment is worse than the disease because she never feels as bad as she does after he’s been here. And it will be the first time that she’s received the drugs without Jackie by her side and she isn’t prepared for Tommy to see the full effects of what she goes through; if she ever saw pity in his eyes she’d never want to look at him again.

She smiles as she cranks the engine and it purrs loudly. It’s the kind of car you’d see cruising the strip on the weekend back in her hometown. She glides it into one of the open bays and closes the door behind it before heading to the main house. Her gait is slow but she feels better, stronger than she can remember feeling for a long time.

Walking slowly down into the study she senses immediately that things are slightly out of place. Jackie doesn’t even come in this room and neither do any of the cleaning staff unless Elissa is in here with them. Heading back to the pocket doors on the back wall she presses the right numbers into the keypad and walks into the brains of this house. A wall of small panel television monitors line one wall and from there she can see the entire perimeter of the estate. Heading to one of the computers she pulls up the surveillance for the hallways last night and begins watching the footage.

Elissa watches Tommy’s progress through the house and smiles at his nudity as he explores. She’d expected him to wander, had even told him to, but she’d forgotten to secure her study; it’s on her and she’s not mad, especially after she realizes that all he did was look. She leans forward on her elbows and watches him as he stares at the only picture she has of herself as a child. It was taken her kindergarten year, one of the worst years of her life and she keeps it only to remind herself of how far she’s come, how much she’s removed herself from that life.

She moves the footage forward and switches camera’s as Tommy makes his way through the rest of the house and finally ends in the gym. She sighs as his backside is towards the camera and he bends over to retrieve something from the garbage. Not able to see what it is she goes back farther into the footage to much earlier in the day, rewinding until she sees a familiar figure in the gym talking on the wall mounted phone. She turns the volume up and listens in on the conversation Jackie is having while gesturing wildly.

“You better make sure you make it here for the treatments while I’m gone. We don’t need any setbacks, Laszlo.”

Elissa feels touched and chokes back the tears; Jackie always makes sure that she gets her treatments and meds. But then again she’s not sure she likes the way Jackie is talking to the doctor even if she’s only trying to look out for her. The man works tirelessly, travelling here to administer to her and never giving Elissa shit about not wanting to leave her home. If even Jackie knew how bad her agoraphobia was… she’d had herself sedated entirely when she’d been forced to move from her home in Ohio to here outside Pittsburgh; she’d been shipped like a fucking corpse because the fear would have been too great otherwise. And she hadn’t even been sick then.

A man was the reason she’d moved here, a very disturbed and dangerous man whom she can’t be sure isn’t still trying to find her now.

She shakes violently as she thinks about Grant and his threats. She doesn’t feel safe even though she hasn’t seen hide nor hair of him since she moved here or even three months prior to that. His words are still in her binder locked away in her safe and she reads them frequently to remind herself that there is real danger outside these walls.

_You’ll always be my girl. No one can take you from me and if you can’t be mine you won’t be anyone’s. I’ll save you from them before they can take you. I am the way and the light._

To say that Grant had been obsessed with her towards the end of their relationship would be an understatement. He had become paranoid, telling her that people were out to get them both but that he would keep them safe. They’d only been dating for a few months at that point and until then Elissa had been sure that he was the one she might finally give in to. But his entire personality had changed almost overnight and then he’d gotten to the point of trying to force himself on her. She’d had him removed from the property; that’s when the notes began showing up in the mail.

He’d written to her, telling her how he wanted to save her soul from what he had called the eternal darkness, proclaiming that he was the only way she could ascend into a higher existence. He had been five hundred kinds of crazy and she wasn’t the one to try and help him so she ran and in her fear became a total shut in.

Grant hadn’t always been a bad memory for her. When they’d first met he’d been charming, handsome, a brilliant computer programmer and they’d bonded over their love of technology. He’d been kind, considerate and was always doing small things like opening her door for her and sending her flowers randomly. He’d never pressed her for anything sexually, he’d been as reticent to jump into that as she had been it seemed so it had never gone there until the last night she’d seen him face to face.

Digging into his past after the fact she’d come to know that he was a paranoid schizophrenic and had apparently gone off his meds. His own parents had been afraid of the un-medicated Grant. He had been the reason for her agoraphobia and had made the move to another state necessary. Even away from him she’d gone deeper into her depression and inability to leave her own home.

Jackie had come along around that time, right after the relocation here to Pittsburgh about five years ago when Elissa had begun looking for a personal assistant. The two women had hit it off famously and Elissa began to trust her has a friend as well as a competent employee who organized and managed her day to day affairs. The two of them sometimes fought like sisters and often Elissa had to remind Jackie that while she loved her, Jackie was still under her employ and needed to do as she was directed.

A year and a half ago was when the symptoms had begun; the stomach pains, the unexplained bruising and the debilitating migraines had brought Elissa’s world to a screeching halt. She started finding it hard to manage her work from home and retreated even further from the world. Jackie had been the one who found Doctor Laszlo and had managed to talk the man into treating her here in her own home. But then again, the crazy amount of money she spends on him and his medicine would and should be enough to bring anyone here.

Dialing his number she gets the answering service like she expected.

“I need to cancel my appointments with Doctor Laszlo for today and the rest of the week.”

The receptionist takes her info and notes that the doctor will give her a call back after checking his messages. Elissa thanks the woman and hangs up; she leans back in the chair and stares at the monitors, watching the walls and the gate for signs of anyone. Other than a wayward deer that’s made its way onto the grounds she’s never seen anything or anyone that shouldn’t be here. It’s been over a year since she received a note from Grant in her forwarded mail and she wonders of something might have happened to the man. Regardless she doesn’t think she’ll ever want to venture back into the world or that she’ll even have the opportunity if the cancer is as bad as Dr. Laszlo seems to think it is.

Watching the camera in her bedroom she sees Tommy stir slightly on the bed and shift his position. The covers slide down his body and his ass is there in hi definition for her to ogle.

“Oh my,” she breathes and leans in closer as he rolls onto his back. His parts are at full mast and she recalls what it felt like to have him thrusting into her mouth last night. It’s not anything she’d ever thought she would enjoy doing but in the heat of the moment, wanting to please him, it had been natural. Especially after what he had done for her.

She sees movement in her peripheral on another camera and startles only to see that it’s her chef. The woman is a total bizarre asshole but she can cook like nobody’s business and is efficient and fast so Elissa keeps her on. This morning she’ll prepare three days’ worth of meals that can be warmed easily in the convection oven or even the commercial grade microwave.

Looking back to the bedroom cam she sees Tommy stretching and this his arm pats the bed beside him as if he’s feeling around for her. She decides to take the servants staircase that only she knows about up to the fourth floor. She feels like she’s well enough this morning to make it all the way up and she smiles, wondering if Tommy might fancy a shower with her.

Just as she stands the phone rings and she recognizes Jackie’s number on the caller ID. She doesn’t answer; deciding instead to call her back after breakfast is over.

The servants staircase is down at the other end of the hall and as hard as Elissa tries to avoid running into the cook she isn’t successful.

“Miss Carter,” she hears from behind her and is thankful that at least the secret stairway wasn’t opened before she got cornered.

“Good morning Gudrun,” she says with a sigh and turns to face the woman.

“Jackie didn’t order enough supplies to get you through the week and I am told you have a guest staying with you as well?”

Sometimes it takes a moment for Elissa to process what Gudrun has said since her accent is very severe and Elissa is a southern girl. Once she realizes what the cook has said she frowns. It’s not like Jackie to miss a beat on anything, let alone groceries.

“Wait here,” Elissa says and heads back to the study. Grabbing her wallet from the desk drawer she walks back to the hallway and hands Gudrun her credit card. “Order whatever you need and have it delivered. I’m sure Stapleton’s will be happy to expedite whatever you need.”

Gudrun nods and turns on her heels like a soldier before stomping off to the kitchen.

It takes Elissa a little longer to make the trek up the stairway than it might a healthy person but she’s barely winded when she makes it up and the little victory has her smiling. Tommy is still stretched out on the bed but he peeks at her with one eye and smiles when he recognizes her walking towards him. His cock is standing straight up and he makes no move to cover himself.

“Good morning,” he says and she loves the raspy sound of his voice.

“Good morning to you,” she laughs and stands next to the bed so she can stare down at him shamelessly. “I was wondering if maybe you’d like to join me in the shower before breakfast.”


	14. Steam

Tommy follows Elissa into the bathroom and she touches what looks like a computer screen attached to the wall outside of the huge walk in shower. It comes to life and he watches as her fingers fly over the graphics.

‘What’re you doing?” He asks and walks up behind her. He doesn’t mean to poke her in the ass cheek with his erection but does so unintentionally.

Elissa laughs when Tommy mutters sorry and tells him, “I’m programming the shower.”

She unties her belt and lets the robe she’s wearing drop to the floor before she turns to face him. Tiptoeing she kisses him on his lips, loving the plump feel of them against her own.

“You know, where I come from, we have two knobs we turn to program our showers.”

He’s teasing her but his cock is throbbing with the memory of her mouth on it. He knows he’s not going to fuck her in the shower although it would be the ideal place to take her virginity if there is going to be blood.

 _Shit Conlon,_ he thinks to himself, _you’re making it sound like a bad western._

Looking over her head at the glass encompassing the shower he sees that it’s completely steamed up already.

“How hot is that water, babe?” He asks, not wanting to get overheated. He knows he can’t ask her to program it to his liking which is no hot water at all but this looks nuclear.

“Oh the shower isn’t on yet, that’s the steam room feature. I always use it first to warm up. The illness makes it hard for me to keep my body temperature normal.” Elissa slides the glass entry panel open and steps inside. He loses sight of her immediately and then her hand reaches out of the steam and beckons for him to join her.

Walking into the shower is a shock to his system. He finds it weird and a little hard to breathe in the thick and muggy air but his skin seems to enjoy the heat more than he would have thought. He’s covered in goose bumps and when Elissa runs her hands down his back he moans lowly. Her fingers and touch are light to the point of almost tickling him but he’s enjoying it.

He turns to face her and can barely see her through the fog in the air.

“Come here baby,” he whispers and pulls her close to him. He bends his legs to get lower so that his cock presses into her clit and then downwards as her body makes closer contact with his, she gasps at the pressure and Tommy pushes in towards her again.

The motion he makes is the same he would if he were inside of her but now he’s only making contact with her clit. Elissa is like a live wire, jumping in reaction to the increase and decrease in force. Her breathing is ragged in his ear as she holds onto him around his neck for balance.

“Do you want to… I mean do you think we should do it in here?” She asks, trying her hardest to finish the sentence and sound intelligent while he’s pushing her to the brink of insanity by dry humping her.

“No, not in here, not like this. But let me get you off, I wanna taste you again.”

Tommy hears the steam turn off and then water is spraying onto them from many directions including directly above them. He laughs, never having experienced anything like it before. He realizes than no matter where they stand in here water will find them so he pushes Elissa up against the back wall and kisses her mouth. He moves on to her neck and she winds her fingers in his hair and sighs at the sensation. His lips are magic and everywhere they touch makes her skin tingle with electricity. Moving down further he bends and sucks her nipple into his mouth, caressing it with his tongue before moving to the other one. His fingers idly part her cleft and hone in on her center. He rubs lightly in a circular motion and can feel her press her hips forward into his touch.

Crouching down and lowering himself onto his knees he lifts her left leg up and over his shoulder before leaning in and licking his way to her center. Elissa cries out when he sucks her into his mouth harder than he’d dared to last night but her fingers on the back of his head tell him that she’s okay.

She watches him as he devours her, his eyes wander up to her and he looks like a fucking god there on his knees with the hot water plastering his hair to his forehead. His mouth encompasses her pussy in wet heat, even hotter than the shower water and she gets off from _watching_ what he’s doing as much as from _what_ he’s doing. He’s beautiful and he makes her feel like she could be beautiful too. Elissa tries not to linger on the fact that she’s paying him for this illusion.

“Jesus… Tommy, I think… I’m so close.” Her words come out jumbled and her tone is confused.

“That’s right baby; show me how hard you can come for me.” He growls before swiping his tongue roughly against her clit. He digs his fingers into her ass and it sets her off. She grabs at the slick tile of the shower walls and cries loudly as her body loses control. Tommy doesn’t stop his actions, instead choosing to suck her back into his mouth and massage her twitching sex with his tongue even harder. Her hands push at his head, the feeling is too intense but it extends her orgasm to the point that her legs shake violently and she feels several gushes of fluid leave her body. She can’t be bothered to wonder too much what that was because she can’t formulate a proper thought at the moment.

Tommy stands and picks her up, taking her over to the built in bench and laying her down. He tests the strength of the structure before climbing on top of her. She thinks for a moment he’s decided to take her virginity now but he doesn’t enter her. Instead he positions himself so that his cock rubs between her lower lips and over her nub every time he thrusts. He dips his head down and nuzzles her breasts in turn, hardening her nipples with his tongue and by lightly grazing them with his teeth.

His hips go into overdrive as he tries to get enough friction to get himself off. Elissa is coming again already and the sight of her beneath him, her long black hair spread out like a silken halo around her head is a vision like something from a dream.

“You’re beautiful,” he gasps as his efforts wind him.

“Come on me, let me watch you…” she cries out and Tommy rises up to his knees between her legs. He fists his length and braces himself against the wall with his other hand. Elissa reaches and grasps his balls and smirks as he lets his head fall back and his Adam’s apple protrudes from his neck. His hand moves quickly up and down his shaft and Elissa can feel his skin of his scrotum tightening as he nears release.

“What are you imagining Tommy?”

His head snaps down to look at her, his eyes full of lust and his voice like honeyed gravel as he answers, “Fucking you… hard. Feeling my cock in you and coming inside of you.”

He explodes with his admission and his seed lands all over her stomach and breasts. Elissa’s pussy is still twitching with her own good endings and watching this man get off while thinking about her only prolongs it. Tommy wraps his hands behind her shoulders and pulls her up to him. He kisses her deeply, his tongue probing her like he wants his cock to be inside of her cunt.

“Damn,” is all he manages before sliding over Elissa and standing under the strongest spray of water coming from the ceiling; he’s satiated for the moment but if he keeps looking at her he can’t guarantee he won’t climb back on top of her and turn her pussy out.

He feels Elissa sidle up beside of him and push him out of the way so she can stand under the spray. He smiles and looks around for the shampoo.

“Let’s hurry up and get dressed. I’m sure Gudrun has something amazing for us to eat by now.”

Tommy stops looking for the shampoo and looks at Elissa with his eyes wide.

“Gudrun? Short German lady with an attitude?”

“How…?”

“You cannot let that crazy bitch know I’m here or that I even know you. Please just take my word for this. I have to figure out a way to get my car out of view.”

“Tommy… calm down, I already moved it into the garage this morning. She won’t see it there.”

Tommy gets momentarily pissed because he doesn’t like anyone driving his car but then he chills, knowing she did him a huge favor.

He nods and sighs with relief. He follows Elissa out of the shower and she hands him a huge, fluffy towel that’s actually big enough for him to wrap around himself. He waits for Elissa to ask him more questions about Gudrun but she doesn’t.

“I’ll go downstairs and dismiss Gudrun for the rest of the week with pay but this just means you’ll have to make food runs once her meals run out.” Elissa grins at him, wondering if he’ll agree to that. Honestly she’s been craving pure junk food but under the watchful eye of Jackie and Dr. Laszlo she doesn’t ever get anything but what Jackie serves her. “I’m buying, by the way.”

Tommy rushes her and picks her up, throwing her over his shoulder gently and hauling her to the bed. She laughs wildly but doesn’t struggle.

“Deal,” he says after laying her down on the mattress. “Just let me know when she’s gone, yeah?”


	15. About those eggs

After a lot of very threatening sounding German words being thrown at her and doubling Gudrun’s salary for taking the week off, Elissa leaves the woman to her work. She realizes that there is a massive amount of food that’s going to be delivered today and everyone on her staff will be gone by then. It’ll be up to her to put it all away or to bribe the delivery man to do it for her. Maybe she can entice Tommy into helping?

She heads back up to her suite and finds Tommy looking out her turret window down into the garden. His expression is pensive and he looks a million miles away.

She walks up behind him and lays a gentle hand on his back. “Everything ok?”

Tommy turns and smiles at her, masking whatever he had been thinking quickly.

“I want to tell you that I went exploring the house this morning, maybe I shouldn’t have.”

Elissa almost tells him that she has cameras everywhere and the only place he could go that she wouldn’t be able to track him is in the bathrooms. But she keeps this bit of information to herself; she’s not even sure that Jackie knows about her surveillance inside of the house.

“Tommy, I meant what I said, you have free reign of the house while you’re here. I want you to be as comfortable as possible.”

“I saw the picture of you, the one when you were still a little girl. You were cute.”

She knows there’s more that he wants to say but doesn’t. She doesn’t reply but walks over to a dresser and pulls out a bathing suit.

“I was thinking we could go for a swim when the staff leaves. What do you think?” She’s smiling as she looks at the suit, she’d ordered it over the internet two years ago and it still had the tags on it. Today is the first time she’s had any inclination to try it on let alone use it.

“I’m thinking we should go for a swim but I don’t see why we’d need the suits,” he growls and wraps his arms around her waist from behind.

“Let’s do it now, Tommy. Let’s just get it over with so I can relax and you can relax… I can’t take this hanging over my head anymore.”

Elissa turns to face Tommy and her expression is frantic, crazed and frankly it scares him a little.

“No, not like this. I mean you’re the boss but, I want to make it something you’ll look back on and have good memories of, not something you did in a hurry to get it over with.” He shakes his head at her and feels his own good bit of panic. He’s not ready, this isn’t right and he’s going to do his best to talk her out of it.

“Okay,” Elissa says with a sigh. She can see his point but there’s a part of her that doesn’t want it to be special. He’s a gigolo and it’s not like he’s going to be a part of her life after this week. She may never see him again after this weekend and even if she does, what will this end up being? There’s no emotional connection; there can’t be. This is more of a business arrangement and for a brief second she feels angry; he should just throw her down on the bed and do what she tells him to. The ire doesn’t last and she feels grateful that he wants to take the time; to make the effort to make it somewhat special. Patience has never been a virtue that she’s familiar with. It’s been a blessing in her business life and a curse in her personal world. Perhaps if she had been more patient and diligent with learning about Grant before jumping into a relationship with him she wouldn’t have suffered so much at his hands.

Grabbing her tablet she logs into the security system and peers at the back lot camera footage. It seems that Gudrun has left already and the rest of her staff is heading out for the day with the exception of the cleaning crew. She walks over to the intercom system and tells them to call it a day and expect to be paid for all the hours they normally work.

All she can think about is being alone with Tommy. So what if the vases get dusty or sheets don’t get changed?

“Well breakfast will have been prepared but I’m afraid we’re on our own after that. And I might need your help with putting away a few groceries when they get delivered later.”

“So you don’t cook at all?”

The question surprises Elissa. Sure she can cook but she hasn’t had to in so long the thought didn’t even cross her mind.

“I can cook…”

“Don’t get me wrong baby, I’m not asking if you’ll cook for me, I’m just wondering how long it’s been since you had to fend for yourself.”

Elissa growls at his words. What does he think? She’s totally incapable of doing anything except ringing a bell for service?

Forty five minutes later the kitchen is filled with the repulsive smell of burnt eggs and the breakfast that Gudrun had made is warming in the convection oven. Elissa smiles sheepishly at Tommy as he holds back a laugh.

“I’m not used to cooking on gas,” she explains, “growing up we only ever had electric stoves. It’s a totally different animal.”

“Well at least we have Gudrun’s omelets to ward off the starvation.”

“Is she, or was she a client of yours?”

Tommy leans across the table to look at her closely, willing the defensiveness he’s feeling to settle down as he reminds himself that this woman probably doesn’t have a mean or malicious bone in her body.

“I’ll make a deal with ya,” he grumbles and half smiles, “you want to know certain things about me that I don’t usually share and I know the shit I’m curious about concerning you isn’t anything you want to talk about. But I’ll trade info with you. If we both have to open up then I think it’s a fair trade.”

He leans back in his seat and folds his arms just as the timer goes off on the oven. The smell of the omelets is amazing and Tommy wonders how he never knew Gudrun was a chef.

“Deal,” Elissa says and forces a grin. She’s not sure what she’s getting herself into but the desire to know more about Tommy and not just his connections to her cook is strong. Sure she can find out about his military service, his credit card accounts, all the places he’s lived but she can’t get anything about his personal life or the things he’s been through. It’s not like her to even want to know this stuff but she feels like he might be incredibly relatable if she could only get past that gruff exterior. She desires for him to be sweet to her all the time, not just when he’s making her come.

She stands and pulls the food out of the oven and serves it on the staffs table there in the kitchen. Tommy digs in and moans; it’s delicious to say the least.

“So I noticed that you seem to be feelin’ a lot better this morning.”

“Yeah, a lot better than normal actually. But I have good days and bad days. Maybe it’s this wretched virginity that’s been killing me,” she says meaning to sound light hearted but reminding Tommy and herself of the fact that she’s sick has the opposite effect.

“Is Laszlo the only doctor you’ve seen about this… cancer?” Tommy asks, unsure if he’s overstepping bounds but not really caring at this point.

“Yes. He’s the only doctor I’ve consulted.”

“And is Jackie the one who found him?” Tommy has a natural distrust of people but something about Jackie really sets him on edge.

“Yes she is… where are you going with this?” Elissa puts her fork down, unwilling to take another bite until Tommy explains himself.

“All I mean to say is that most people get a second opinion when it comes to shit like this. Doctors are human too and they do make mistakes.”

Elissa looks down at her plate and focuses on the green spinach that’s oozing out of the end of her omelet. “It’s not easy to get doctors here. They all want you to come in to their practices and have your blood work done.”

Tommy lets it drop even though he isn’t satisfies with her answer. She has more money that god and she’s telling him that she couldn’t pay someone enough to come out and take care of her here.

Finishing breakfast in relative silence Tommy leans back in his chair and pats his stomach.

“You ready for that swim?” He questions trying to lighten the mood.


	16. Chlorine

Elissa can’t stop staring at Tommy’s body as it cuts through the water; he’s a natural in this element. One part in particular has her attention and she’s imagining how madly it’s going to hurt when that thing shoves up inside of her.

Maybe she has the wrong attitude about it; I mean after all this morning she was so hot and bothered for him, so wet that she was begging him to take her then and there. She knows he’s feeling a lot of pressure, she could tell by the way he tensed up when she asked him this morning. It’s almost like it means more to him than it does to her.

Tommy’s treading water now, looking at her and she recognizes the expression on his face. She’s still wrapped up in her robe, crazily self-conscious about being naked in the daytime in front of him. She stands up from the chair to get naked when her cell phone rings. She’s going to let it go to voicemail but it stops and then starts ringing again. There’s only one person it can be. She sighs and holds finger up to Tommy who dives back under the water again and swims to the bottom easily.

“Hello?”

“Why did I get a call from Dr. Laszlo telling me you’d not only cancelled your treatment for today but for the entire week? Do you have a death wish?”

Jackie is furious and Elissa is surprised that the doctor would call her instead of calling here first.

“Yes, it’s true. But I’m feeling much better and I want to enjoy this week. I don’t think missing seven days of treatment is going to set me back, not if things are as bad as he’s telling me anyway. I’m paying for certain services and I want to be able to experience them without feeling violently ill.”

Elissa uses her authoritarian tone with Jackie but the woman isn’t picking up what she’s putting down. Maybe it’s the raised eyebrow and the death glare that are most effective when she has to put Jackie back in her place.

“I’m coming home, obviously you can’t be trusted to take care of yourself…”

“Jackie, listen to me when I tell you this, if you leave Ibiza and come back here before the week is up you better be prepared to pack your belongings and leave because I’ll fire you. Are we clear? I grew up without a mother and did alright, I don’t need one now.”

Jackie doesn’t say anything for a moment; Elissa has been pissed at her before but this is the first time she’s ever threatened her with being fired.

“Fine,” Jackie finally says haughtily and hangs up without another word. As much as Elissa hates to think about letting her go maybe it’s time to find a new personal assistant; one who can maintain a more professional working relationship.

Elissa also thinks that it might be time to update her will. Things had gotten a little weird when she’d admitted to Jackie that she was the sole beneficiary of her estate and while Elissa wouldn’t cut Jackie out entirely she would rather leave the bulk of her money to charities now.

Setting the phone down for a brief second she picks it back up and dials the answering service. When the receptionist answers she demands to be put through to Dr. Laszlo immediately. When the woman on the other end of the line balks, Elissa goes into bitch-on-wheels mode.

“If you value your job, which in this economy I’m betting you do, you’ll put me through to him immediately.”

Without another word the phone beeps a few times and then starts ringing.

“Yes?”

“Dr. Laszlo, this is Elissa Carter. I have a few things I would like to say to you. First off, I find it highly unprofessional that you would contact my personal assistant to tattle on me for cancelling my appointments this week. I’m sure that it has to be in violation of a ton of HIPPA laws. Second, you’re fired. You’ll receive your final payment from me electronically but please know that your services are no longer needed. Should you show up on my property again I will report you for those violations in patient/doctor privileges. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, but please, it’s imperative that you continue your treatment. I think you should reconsider…”

“Goodbye Dr. Laszlo.”

Now the phone is rested on the table and the robe drops to the poolside tile. Elissa runs and dives into the pool and surfaces next to Tommy, brushing her long hair back out of her face and smiling. How had she let her life slip out of her own control like that? Between Jackie and the Doctor managing everything it had been a long time since she made a decision for herself.

“That was some straight up gangster shit right there, baby.” Tommy grabs her and swims her in a circle, making her laugh. “So what about that second opinion? I mean, you need to make sure you’re okay, yeah?”

“I’ll worry about that after this week,” Elissa mutters and leans in to kiss Tommy. His lips are amazingly soft and over the past day she’s started to crave the feel of them on various parts of her body. He’s addictive; she supposes its why he’s such a successful gigolo.

Tommy’s hands roam up and down her back, causing goose bumps in their wake and she shivers. The water is quickly leeching her body heat out and she makes a mental note that perhaps she needs to make it a heated pool.

Tommy feels her shivering and he carries her to the shallow end and out of the water. Dripping all the way to the elevator he kisses her and holds her close to his body. She has zero body fat and he should have taken that into consideration before suggesting they swim.

Walking into her suite he heads into the bathroom and sits her down in front of the shower’s control panel.

“You get the steam goin’, I’ve got to grab something,” he says, his voice thick with desire.

Walking back into the bedroom her reaches into the Pleasure Chest bag and grabs the small blue vibrator. Checking the packaging to make sure it’s waterproof and seeing that it is, he reaches into his jacket pocket and grabs the female arousal gel. Then he strides back into the bathroom and straight into the shower. The air is thick and steamy and Elissa is on the bench. She’s sitting with her legs spread and Tommy feels his cock come to life at the sight of her.

“You trust me?” He asks as he kneels in front of her and she nods, her mouth open and naked desire etched into her expression. “I know you said you tried this before but I want you to let me teach you how to use one of these.”

He twists the end and a quiet buzzing noise fills the shower alongside the sound of the steam being piped in.

“Relax baby,” he growls as he pulls her hips forward and uses his left hand to spread her lips. He squirts a small amount of the gel directly onto her clit and rubs it in with his fingers. Elissa gasps and her eyes go wide. “How’s that feel?”

“It’s really warm…”

Tommy leans his head in and blows on it, causing a delicious shiver to travel its way up from Elissa’s center to her head. Tommy takes the vibrator and places it only slightly above her center. She gasps again and pulls her hips back; the feeling is so intense she feels like she’s going to scream.

“Baby,” he chides her and pulls her hips forward again. He pushes the vibrator closer to her clit and stops her from pulling away this time even though she tries.

“It’s…” she cries out, “it’s too much!”

“Just relax, you’ll get used to it, trust me,” he coos and presses even harder.

“Oh fuck, I can’t…” but even as she says it her body starts to like the feeling and she rolls her hips involuntarily into it.

“There you go, baby. Just relax and let me do this.”

The shower turns on and Elissa watches Tommy work on her pussy like it’s surgery or something. His expression is intense, like she saw on his face when she watched the Sparta fights. He doesn’t do anything half assed apparently.

Her clit is throbbing and she’s not sure if it’s from the gel he applied, the vibrator, or both. She feels her impending release approaching and her breathing is fast and ragged.

“Tommy, oh god…” she moans as she grabs at his shoulders and pushes her cleft into the vibe. It’s almost not enough now and she’s dangling on the precipice, waiting for the final kick that’ll send her over the edge. Tommy gives it to her when he puts the vibrator on high.

Her cries echo through the shower, bouncing off the tiled walls as she comes so hard she convulses. It seems like forever before the tremors and twitches come to a stop and Tommy is smiling at her. He grabs her loofah and soaps her body up as she sits there. She’s like Jell-O and while she really wants to please him too she’s literally unable to stand. With the very few calories she’s had in the past day and a half she has no energy reserves. She’s already half out of it when Tommy dries her off and carries her to the bed.

She feels him crawl under the duvet with her and wrap himself around her.

“Oh god, Tommy, thank you for that.”

He laughs into her hair and says, “How about a nap before it’s lunch time. I think I can whip something up for us if you trust me to try and cook for you.”

“Mmmhmm,” is all she manages before she drifts off to sleep.

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Her dreams are dark, there’s some unknown something after her and as she’s trying to run she realizes she’s in knee deep mud, unable to get away.

It’s some sort of sleep paralysis as she comes almost all the way awake. She can hear Tommy snoring lightly behind her and as soon as his arm pulls her closer she rouses all the way. She presses her ass back into him as far as she can and feels his cock respond, growing hard up against her. She smiles, content to steal his warmth for a little while longer as she drifts back off, this time into a dreamless sleep.

                The next time she rouses, Tommy is kissing the back of her and pressing his erection into her softly. She rolls over to face him and his expression is so soft, so beautiful she wants to cry a little. She takes him into her hand and strokes him, feeling a small amount of wetness at the head of his cock.

“You ready for me?” He asks, his voice like velvet and she nods, leaning to kiss him, wanting this so badly that she can feel herself dripping onto the sheets. Tommy throws the bedcovers back and she looks down at him as he positions himself above her. On the bedside table is the lube and he grabs it, handing it to Elissa.

She puts a few drops in her hands and slathers it all around his length, loving the feel of how hard he is but how that hardness is covered by such soft skin. She looks up at him and he positions himself at her entrance, his breathing rough and his whole body shaking with want. His cock presses gently at her entrance and she takes a deep breath, knowing if she tenses up it will only make it worse.

She feels the head enter her body and she spreads her legs more to accommodate the width of his body. He kisses her again, this time probing with his tongue, rolling it against hers and breathing into her.

He looks deep into her eyes as if to ask if she’s sure and she nods again.

When he presses into her there is a searing pain for an instant and then only the feeling of his body filling hers to capacity. He holds his position, his hands caressing the sides of her face as his elbows hold his weight off of her. His eyes search her expression and she can only look back at him with awe. He pulls himself out slowly and then presses back in equally as unhurriedly.

The pain, while white hot when he moves, is manageable and Elissa runs her hands down to his ass to feel the muscles there as he works himself in and out of her. She’s amazed at the feeling of being connected physically to someone like this. Her cunt feels stretched to accommodate him but the sensation isn’t painful anymore; in fact there is a slow building burn that is amazing and it’s growing with every thrust he makes.

“Goddamn, you’re so tight… how does it feel?” He’s grunting with effort; his body is telling him to hammer her through the fucking headboard but he knows he needs to hold back for now. She’s clutching at him, her pussy milking him and he’s trying to hold out long enough to make her come first.

Tears spill down the sides of Elissa’s face. He’s being so gentle with her when he could positively tear her up right now. She’s done it, by fucking god, she’s lost her virginity finally and now that albatross is finally from around her neck.

“Babe…” Tommy looks alarmed but Elissa smiles up at him.

‘It’s perfect, Tommy.”

He groans and closes his eyes, thrusting a little harder now and Elissa’s body responds. She wraps her legs around him and he plunges in deeper, making her cry out.

“Tommy,” she whimpers, unsure of what’s happening because her body is building to something that feels different than what he’d given her before. He pushes up onto his hands and she looks down as his cock disappears inside of her. Seeing it makes that burning sensation in her stomach increase tenfold.

“You gonna come for me?” His words are rough and he’s watching her as her chest heaves and sweat beads up on her forehead. He rolls his hips, rooting deep inside of her and he feels her body clench down hard on him. “I want to feel you come all around me, come on baby. Come with me.”

Elissa reaches down between them and rubs her finger over her clit, gently at first but then harder and faster. The sight of her touching herself sets Tommy on fire.

“Fuck yeah, that’s beautiful,” he grunts and he can tell that he’s about to explode inside of her. “Come on baby…”

Elissa wails as she comes, her body spasming so tightly around Tommy that she pulls the orgasm from his body in a very literal sense. He curses and slams into her as his seed fills her up and spills out onto the bed. Her nails dig into his back and she feels like she might black out from all the different sensations her body is experiencing.

Tommy’s kissing her again and she responds passionately.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” is all she can say between breaths.

It’s everything she imagined and more than she had hoped for. How was she going to let this man go at the end of the week?


	17. In too deep

Elissa’s body is prone on top of him; he runs his fingers up and down her back lazily as she naps again. They’d fucked three times in total and still hadn’t even had lunch although it’s nearing dinner time. Her body is amazing and so responsive to everything he does. He can feel his cock hardening just by thinking about the sounds she makes and the way she looks beneath him as he rides her body into euphoria.

Something nags at him in the back of his mind and he knows it’s the fact that she’s ill and he’s had some sort of hand in her dismissing her doctor. It wasn’t his intent for her to fire the man; only to get a second opinion and now she’ll be without treatment for at least a week. He can count every rib as his finger moves along her skin and it makes him sad. He wonders what she’d look like healthy and in all her glory; even ill she’s beautiful in such a way that his eyes can’t stop from looking at her whenever she’s close.

There also something about the name Laszlo nags at him as well, it’s not a common name for sure and he knows he’s heard it before in conjunction with the word doctor. Every time he tries to grab onto the connection it disappears like a puff of smoke.

Elissa moves on top of him in her sleep and her bones are sharp. He’s reminded that she needs calories in excessive amounts and he’s determined to put some weight on her while he’s here.

Looking at Tommy you wouldn’t know that there’s a side to him that wants to mother the fuck out of people but that aspect of him has always been there for the few who stick around long enough to break through the wall of self-protection. He’d been his mother’s care taker until the end, cleaning up her sick and even bathing her when it got too be too hard for her to do it herself. Even as he’d watched her die it had been a source of pride for him to know that he’d provided that level of care for her.

 

Sliding carefully out from under Elissa he moves off of the bed and then stands to look down at her. Her dark hair spills down her back like a curtain and in the fading light of the day coming through the window she looks more like a painting than a real person. After a quick shower he dresses in a pair of training shorts and a tight white tee and heads down to the kitchen.

Grabbing some chicken breasts that he’d helped put away and a plethora of fresh veggies he heads out to the grill near the pool. The set up outside is nice and he throws the chicken on the grill after seasoning it. He whistles while he chops the veggies length wise, waiting until the chicken is closer to done before grilling them as well. He settles back into one of the chairs on the patio and looks around.

In a way he can see how Elissa can stay here and never think about leaving but he knows he could never stand it. As huge as this place is, and he doesn’t even know for sure how much land she has, he couldn’t handle never interacting with the outside world. One of his ambitions in life is to travel and see shit he’s never seen before. Someday he wants to visit Ireland, Rome, and fuck, maybe even just take a cruise to the Bahama’s. With all her money he can’t fathom that Elissa isn’t out exploring the world.

He’s dying to ask her why she’s homebound but he knows it’s none of his business and should stay the hell out of it. If she wants to live completely inside these walls she must have her reasons and who is he to question them. All he can do is try and make this next week a good one for her.

He hears the sliding glass patio doors open as he’s flipping the chicken and putting the veggies on the grill.

“My goodness that smells incredible,” Elissa says as her stomach growls loudly. “I’m famished.”

“It’ll be ready in about fifteen minutes or so. You got anything else you want me to fix with this?”

Elissa nuzzles her face into his back, feeling content in the moment and not thinking that maybe she’s getting too comfortable or familiar with him. “I have some pasta salad we can eat with it, it’s Gudrun’s recipe so you know it’s good.”

“Grab that and some plates and we’ll eat out here if you want,” Tommy says without turning to her.

Elissa heads back into the house, feeling boneless after all the sex she’s had today but already excited about the prospect of more. She’d imagined that she might be sore but she can’t detect even a hint. She’d woken up without Tommy beside her but a smile had been plastered on her face. She took the time alone as an opportunity to change the sheets, embarrassed at the sight of the blood they’d lain in. She’d chided herself mentally, _who the fuck waits til they’re thirty-one before they get dicked?_

Instead of tossing the sheets into the laundry she’d folded them and sealed them up inside of a plastic storage bag for some reason. Tucking them away into the very back of her closet before finding a set of clean bed linens, she’d smiled to herself at her freaky little keepsake. It wasn’t just her that had left something on that bottom linen; Tommy was there too. She’d sighed at the memory of what it had felt like as he’d emptied himself inside of her. It had been a moment that she would never forget but for some reason she wanted to keep the sheets as a reminder; no one but her ever had to know.

Grabbing the pasta salad from the fridge along with some cheese and crackers, a bottle of chilled white wine, wine glasses, plates, silverware and napkins she loads it all into a basket and makes her way back to the patio. Passing the serving platter to Tommy she sets the small dinette with her things from the kitchen, even folding the napkins into cute little shapes. She reaches into a drawer beside the grill and pulls out the bottle opener, smiling at Tommy and feeling a little affected by how domestic this all is. In a way it makes her sad because she’d never realized how much she would enjoy having a man around her until now. This place is going to be achingly empty once Tommy leaves.

Opening the Riesling she pours each of them a glass and then sits down to watch Tommy work. She’s unashamedly ogling him, who wouldn’t? His shoulders are immense and every little movement he makes is like a muscly avalanche down his back. She remembers how those muscles felt underneath her fingertips as he’d pushed into her and it sends a shiver through her. He turns from the grill smiling and carries his hard work over to the table on her good silver platter.

“It’s nothin’ fancy but I like to think it’s edible.”

Elissa is literally drooling as he looks at what he’s made. She can’t wait to try it and then maybe she can entice him to have some more sex with her.

She doles out pasta salad on both their plates as he does the same with the chicken and veggies. She raises her wine glass once their plates are completed and smiles at her dinner companion.

“Here’s to not fancy cooking, a good white wine, incredible company and sweaty sex,” she laughs and winks before clinking her glass to his and he chuckles along with her.

“Amen to that,” he says and tries the wine. He’s never been one to like this shit but this stuff isn’t bad at all. It’s probably some of that five thousand dollar a bottle stuff that he reads about in Esquire sometimes. Might as well enjoy it, he thinks to himself before cutting into the chicken.

“Tommy, seriously, is there anything you’re not good at?” Elissa asks as she tries the chicken. It’s cooked and seasoned perfectly and melts in her mouth.

“Yeah, I’m terrible at ballet,” he kids and takes another sip of his wine. Trying the pasta salad it tastes good but has a strong after taste; it probably has some really severe German spice in it. He pushes it around his plate with his fork but doesn’t eat any more of it.

The rest of the food disappears in a matter of minutes and Elissa realizes that there is no one here but the two of them to clean up the mess. She smiles at Tommy ruefully and laughs, “Well, you cooked so I guess it’s up to me to tidy up.”

“It’s gonna be faster if we work together. I was thinking I’d really like to get you upstairs so I can eat your pussy and then fuck you from behind.”

Elissa chokes on her wine, Tommy’s face is totally deadpan when he says it.

“This shit can wait,” she says as she stands and walks over to him. She places her hand on the bulge of his shorts and he looks up at her hungrily. His pupils have expanded to the point that you can’t see the color of his irises anymore and his mouth is slightly open.

“Ain’t you sore, baby?” He asks but it wouldn’t matter if she was. He’s ready to show her what it’s like to be properly fucked; no more being gentle for now. She needs to know what it feels like for her cunt to be properly used.

“No, not at all,” she whispers and kneels in front of him, pushing his legs apart. He lifts his hips as she tugs at his shorts and she pulls them off of him with minimal effort. Tossing them to the side she dips her head in and takes him into her mouth, working as much of him as she can inside of her and massaging him with her tongue. Her hands work the rest of his length and his balls and he moans loudly before wrapping his fingers into her hair. He doesn’t force her movements, only clenches his fingers as she works him.

“Damn that feels so fuckin’ good,” he growls as he watches her. He knows he won’t last much longer if she keeps this up so he motions for her to climb on top of him. She drops her ever-present robe and does as he asks.

He positions his cock underneath her and says, “Slide down on me slow, I’m gonna show you how to make yourself come like this. This is all you, baby.”

Elissa nods and lowers herself onto him, feeling that soreness he’d asked about as his body parts hers and fills her up again. She pushes down until her ass meets his thighs and she realizes he’s deeper inside of her like this than he has been yet. Her nipples are directly in front of his face and leans in, nipping at them in turn as he stares into her eyes.

“Now, set the pace, girl, whatever feels good for you. Work that pussy on me…”

His words set her on fire; she’d never imagined that dirty talk would be for her but she likes it more than she would ever admit to anyone. Using her thighs she pulls her body up along his length and then slowly lowers herself again. There’s something so right about that filthy talk coming out of his angelic looking mouth that she tells him she wants to hear more.

“You like that baby? You like the way I talk about that sweet cunt of yours? You wanna hear how fuckin’ good it feels when I’m so deep inside of you? You want me to fill that pussy up, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she breathes and her legs are on fire from her efforts, the dirtier he talks to her the faster she rides him.

Tommy’s hands are on her hips, helping her as she moves faster. He knows she’ll run out of energy soon and he wants her to be able to make herself come using him like this. He can feel her slowing so he stands with her still impaled on his cock. Walking with her wrapped around his he presses her ass against the sliding glass door and thrusts hard up into her.

“Tell me to fuck you hard,” he rasps in her ear and bites her lobe.

“Jesus… oh…. Fuck me hard, Tommy,” Elissa cries out and bites his shoulder through his tee.

The feel of her teeth cutting through the fabric is sharp but he likes it. He slams up into her again, feeling the head of his cock hitting deep inside of her.

“Are you gonna come, Elissa?” He asks then bites her back, making her cry out.

“You ready to make me come?”

It’s all the incentive he needs to hear her talking back to him like that and he bangs into her like a jackhammer until he feels her body start the now familiar clenching around him.

“Fuck!” It’s all he can manage as he shoots up inside of her over and over again then kisses her hard enough to bruise her lips. He doesn’t care, he wants to devour her until there is nothing left of either of them.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he hears Selina tell him, _“You’re getting into deep, Conlon.”_

She’s right and he knows it. But when does it stop being a job for him and how can he keep from falling for this woman?


	18. Glenfiddich

Now that the elephant in the room had been dismissed the atmosphere between the two of them was greatly relaxed and they were enjoying each other in every way possible. Secretly each of them had concerns that they couldn’t imagine bringing up to the other one.

Elissa wants so badly to ask Tommy if he would consider taking her on as a regular client. Actually, fuck that, she wants to be his ONLY client. Maybe not even a client but his girlfriend. She could never, never imagine actually bringing it up to him. He is a gigolo, he fucks women for money and she’s just another name on a list; one more rich, entitled woman who pays for his cock. She isn’t angry with him; she knew what he was when he came into her tiny universe. She’s pissed at herself for catching feelings for him. She’s the one breaking the unspoken rule and she’s sure if she even gives him a hint of real emotion he’ll grab that envelope of money and be gone like a flash.

Tommy is dying to ask Elissa why she won’t leave her compound, why she feels the need to have all the cameras on the outside of the mansion and why she never asked for a second opinion. She’s obviously a well-educated, intelligent woman who also has street smarts. In his experience, most people had were either book-wise or street-wise but rarely both. Not asking to see another doctor after being told you’re dying isn’t too bright in his opinion. But to ask her that would be digging into places he had no right to. He was her employee and he’s seen how she handles employees who overstep their bounds. Tommy just wants to enjoy the days he has left with her and maybe she’ll want to see him again. He wouldn’t mind if it turned into the same arrangement he had with Selina, especially now that Selina going to be so far away.

If he could be real with himself he’d admit that he likes her more than anyone he’s met in a long time. Everything about her, especially that hysterical laugh of hers, fascinates him. And the goddamned sex, Jesus Christ if he died buried balls deep in her pussy he’d be a happy man. She’s unlike anyone he’s ever known.

But there’s such a sadness about her, such a mysterious sense of melancholy, that he can’t help but to want to know more about why she is that way.

Their fourth day together starts off with sex before the sun even comes up. He’s got her pressed against the bedroom windows and slamming into her from behind. He’s discovered that she’s rather fond of hard, enthusiastic fucking so he gives her what she wants.

“Jesus, I’m gonna come all over your ass,” he growls because he also knows she gets off on some serious dirty talk. And not just that but she’s learning to give it back to him.

“Gah!” She’s breathing like a marathon runner and he can hear her tits squeaking against the glass every time he pushes into her, “Come on my ass…”

And he does, after she has her own happy moment or two. He pulls out of her and she giggles breathlessly as she feels his release splatter all over her back and ass.

He waits for the little shudders to subside before throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her into the shower. After washing her and her reciprocating he buries his face between her legs and gives her another orgasm simply because he’s become rather addicted to the taste of her and he likes to watch her face when she comes.

Later, as they sit at the table in the sunroom eating another round of Gudrun’s omelets Tommy blurts out, “Why are you so afraid of goin’ out of here?”

Elissa looks stunned and sets her fork down gingerly on her plate. She’d been waiting for this, inevitably everyone wanted to know and usually she played it off with vague half-answers. _I’m not that adventurous; I’m just your standard agoraphobic; I have all I need right here, why leave?_ But she knows Tommy won’t buy those for a second and he’s not just some busy-body delving into her personal life; he’s starting to mean more than that to her.

“It’s a long, complicated story and I want to tell you but I think I’ll need some drinks in me first.”

Tommy stares at her hard, analyzing her body language and is sorry he asked but strangely satisfied that she intends to tell him.

“So let’s get drunk.”

“What, you mean now?” She asks, laughing and staring at him wide-eyed. “It’s only seven in the morning!”

“And? What do you gotta do today that’s so fuckin’ important?” He teases and reaches over to steal a bite of her omelet. “It’s not like we have to drive anywhere and I bet you got some hundred year old liquor stashed somewhere in here that’ll fuck us up royally real quick.”

At first she thinks he’s been snooping again but then she realizes he’s just made a really good guess. There’s no way he could have really known about the 64 year old Glenfiddich she’d ordered on a whim one night after she’d been imbibing margarita’s with Jackie. A shitload of money later and she was the proud owner of a bottle of alcohol that had been delivered by armed security guards and was crated like a priceless work of art. She’d open that shit for Tommy.

“Wait here,” she says smiling and runs off to the cellar where the wine and all the other alcohol is kept for storage.

She’s almost skipping when she comes back to the patio with the Glenfiddich and two tumblers.

“This, my good sir,” she says, effecting a rather bad English accent,” is a sixty-four year old bottle of Scotch. Only sixty-one bottles were ever produced and I spent $37,000.00 on this one. Most people bought a bottle as an investment. I bought it because I could, because I had the money and I knew I could open this bitch one day, drink it and not feel bad about it at all. And like you so succinctly put it, it’s probably going to fuck up royally real quick.”

“Liss, wait,” Tommy says but she doesn’t pay him any attention, rather she grabs the bottle and wrenches the decorative paper off of the neck. This bottle is corked like wine so she has to go in search of an opener.

“I’ll be right back,” she says with a wink. Walking to the grill area she opens a drawer and produces what she needs.

Five minutes later the bottle is open and Tommy looks pale.

“What’s wrong?” Elissa asks as she pours them both a tumbler full.

“That’s a lot of money just to get drunk.”

“Tommy, listen to me… I live by the idea that I am not promised another day. Living with illness like I have for so long now, I don’t give a damn about money. Money hasn’t even been able to buy me a cure or even an answer for what’s wrong with me. But almost forty grand bought me this. So let me enjoy this and share it with you. I mean, when are you ever gonna get the chance to drink something like this”

She winks at him and turns the tumbler up after raising it in salute. He follows suit and then they both sit in silence for a moment.

“That’s umm, interestin’,” he says and stifles a cough.

“Yeah,” she growls, trying to clear her throat, “interesting.”

Raising her glass for another sip she sits it down on the table instead and coughs.

“No, it’s horrible, just fucking terrible. Don’t drink it; I’ll go grab a bottle of Jameson instead.”

“Thank Jesus,” he says and coughs too, “I mean, I woulda drank this shit but damn…”

Taking the bottle off the table she sits it right outside the patio doors and heads back down to the cellar. She grabs a bottle of Jameson, a bottle of Jack Daniels Honey and a jar of cherry moonshine. Elissa still had connections back in Tennessee that were more than happy to ship the real stuff to her here in Pennsylvania.

Her arms are loaded down with booze and Tommy runs to the doors to help when he sees her come back.

“You really plan on getting us drunk dontcha?” He teases and chooses the moonshine for his poison. “Why do I have the feeling you’re gonna get me wasted and take advantage of me?”

“Do I really need to ply you with alcohol to do that?” She teases back and he laughs.

“Nope. Not at all,” he snorts as she pours about $2000.00 worth of the Glenfiddich out into the bushes.

“Damn, what a waste,” he says as he watches her. She smiles at him as she walks back to the table. She decides on the cherry ‘shine as well and sticks her fingers into the jar, grabbing one of the cherries with her fingers. She holds it out to Tommy and says, “Here, eat this. It’s a good way to get where you wanna go a little faster. Once he takes it she reaches in again and grabs one for herself.

“Mazel tov, or… whatever.”

She drops the cherry into her mouth and chews, loving the burn and the familiar taste of the moonshine. This was a very good batch it seems. She watches as Tommy does the same and returns his smile when he finds he likes it very much.

“So much better,” he says.

“Yeah, who would have thought a twenty dollar mason jar of moonshine would beat one of the most expensive bottles of scotch in the world in a taste test?”

“Meh,” Tommy says with a crooked grin, “it’s like a lot of things. You’re paying for pretention instead of quality in my opinion.”

“Here’s to quality over pretention then,” Elissa says and pours them both a tumbler full of the cherry infused corn liquor.

Pouring some of the firewater down her throat she moans, loving the burn as it travels from her tongue to her stomach. Turning her gaze to Tommy she sighs, knowing that prolonging the inevitable isn’t going to help matters. Maybe she can get through it faster and without as much detail if she isn’t sloppy drunk. Too much alcohol will mean too many details, more than Tommy needs to know.

“So,” she starts, her voice already shaking, “you sure you want to know why I am the way that I am?”

Tommy doesn’t answer with words, nodding instead and turning up his glass for a long pull of his drink.

“Damn,” she whispers and takes another drink to steel her nerves.

Nearly an hour and most of the jar of ‘shine later, Elissa finishes telling her story, hoping Tommy understands now why she can’t leave this place.

“Why didn’t the police help you?”

Elissa can see that the veins in his neck and forehead are bulging out and that he’s beyond angry. It kind of thrills her that he’s reacting this way; it’s much better than him feeling sorry for her.

“Because I never reported any of it to the police.”

She can see that Tommy is about to say something but she holds up her hand to stop him.

“I knew Grant was sick and I didn’t think jail was the place for him. I hired a private investigator to try and find him, to get him help instead of arrest but we were never able to track him down. I still get things in the mail from him at random times so I know he’s alive and the stuff he sends is forwarded here from my old address so he doesn’t know where I am, or at least I don’t think he does.”

“So if he doesn’t know where you are why can’t you leave your house?”

Tommy is unrelenting and Elissa feels uncomfortable under the scrutiny of his gaze.

“Because,” she sighs, “I have extreme panic attacks when I even try, when I even think about it.” Elissa downs the rest of her drink and pours another one. “It’s not like I haven’t given it an honest effort. I spent a shit ton of money on disguises, thinking that if I looked like someone else I might be able to go through with it… but no. I just can’t.”

Tommy stares at her and something akin to pity starts to color his expression.

“Please don’t… don’t feel sorry for me.”

Tommy turns his head, looking at the garden in front of him. “It might be hard for some people to feel sorry for you because look what you live in, look at all the money you have and look at how beautiful you are.”

He turns to look at Elissa again and sighs, “I feel bad for you and that’s different than pitying you. I feel bad because you ain’t really livin’, you just exist. And you said yourself that you don’t know how much time you have left. You sure you wanna spend it here, hiding from someone who may or may not know where you are?”

Elissa can’t speak; she just stares at Tommy as he goes on speaking his mind and damn whatever she thinks of him afterwards. He’s being more honest with her than anyone has in a long time. Her kind of wealth brings nothing but yes-men into her life; when you’re as rich as she is people only ever tell you what you want to hear or at least what they think you want to hear.

“Baby, as long as you let that man keep you caged up here he’s winning and you’re a prisoner. As long as you let that fear control you you’re still his victim.”

Tommy finishes his glass of moonshine and pours another one, opting to grab another one of the cherries from the bottom of the jar. He pops it into his mouth and chews then says, “I think you’re braver than you get yourself credit for. I think you just never had anybody tell you that you shouldn’t hide out here.”

“You’re right,” she whispers and looks at him, her eyes watery; making him look distorted, “no one has ever told me that I should get out. Jackie, the doctor, they all say it’s better that I stay here.”

Taking another gulp of the clear alcohol she leans back in her chair and feels the first wave of inebriation. Emboldened she leans her elbows on the table and stares hard at Tommy, “My question is this; how do you know so much about this fear and being controlled by it?”

“Because I used to be like you; maybe not to the extreme you are but I was crippled by things that happened. I let it control me to the point of cutting everyone out. I was too afraid to feel anything but anger. So while your walls are real, mine were inside my mind.”

Elissa nods and decides not to press him for the reasons for his walls. If he wants her to know he’ll tell her… someday.

Standing, Elissa sheds her ever present robe and walks over to the pool, diving in the water seamlessly and surfacing at the far end. She crooks her finger at Tommy and says, “If you can make me come three times tonight then we’ll talk about taking a day trip tomorrow. Feel like being my bodyguard too?”

Whether it’s the moonshine talking or if she really thinks she can do this with Tommy’s help doesn’t matter. All she knows is that right now she wants him inside of her, behind her, on top of her. She wants to cover him in kisses, suck his cock, and mark his body with bites and hickeys like a lovesick high-schooler. She wants to feel his weight on top of her, pressing her into whatever he’s fucking her on until she can’t breathe. She wants to see his face buried between her legs, feel his lips wrapped around her clit and she wants to scream his name until it echoes through the halls of her home and comes back to her like an aural boomerang. Tommy Conlon brings out a lust in her that she didn’t even know existed until he fucked her so gently in her bed only days ago.

Tommy rises up out of his chair and sheds his clothing. The sun is high in the sky and the light from it shines down on him, making him seem unreal it shades and highlights his muscles. He prowl to the edge of the water and dives in the same way she had. He swims underneath her and thrusts her up out of the water and onto the side of the pool. His mouth is in a crooked smirk as he looks up at her.

“Three times? If you can still keep count when I’m done then I’m not earning my money, he growls before nuzzling his face between her thighs and parting her with his tongue.

Her fingers wind in his hair and she sighs as she feels his tongue make contact. There’s no doubt that he’s going to win this round.


	19. Privacy

Elissa stares nervously into the mirror. It’s the first that in as long as she can remember clearly that she’s wearing normal clothes instead of a robe. The fit is horrible and she looks like a human skeleton. She cinches the belt as tightly as she can and pushes her stomach out as much as possible and yet the pants still sag on her bony hips.

She doesn’t want to do this and she curses herself mentally for making the bet in the first place. It was sex talk gone wild; her vagina making claims her mind didn’t want to see through. But when she’d seen how excited Tommy was this morning to take her out into Pittsburgh she’d not had the heart to tell him no or to try and weasel her way out of it. Besides, he’d brought out seven orgasms, well beyond the three she’d wagered and she wasn’t one to renege on anything.

Brushing her hair gently, she’s pleased to see that she isn’t shedding as much as usual. She’s been lucky to have kept her hair when most chemo patients are completely bald at this stage. Tears come out of nowhere as she stares at herself in the mirror. She lays the brush down and swipes at the moisture that’s ruining her carefully applied make up. What the fuck is this?

But Elissa knows, deep inside her heart, exactly what this is. She’d made her peace, she’d accepted the inevitable and she was ready to go. And now here comes Tommy, making her care again, making her want to fight again and causing her to fear the death that she’d thought she’d come to terms with. He can’t follow where she has to go next and she doesn’t want to be without him. Her mortality will separate her from him and no amount of money can buy a different outcome.

When her traitorous eyes decide to stop leaking she reapplies her makeup and pulls on a sun hat. She grabs a purse and shoves far too much cash into it as well as her identification and some oversized sunglasses. She’s going to look obvious; obvious as in _I’m obviously trying to be incognito and yet I’m not a movie star or anyone important._

She finds Tommy waiting by the garage entrance and he smiles at her.

“I almost didn’t recognize you with clothes on,” he teases and she knows he means street clothes. Although they have spent the majority of the past five days with only skin between them and there’s not a damned thing wrong with that.

“Wise guy,” she mutters and forces a smile. Her hands shake badly so she shoves them into her pants pockets and rocks nervously on her heels.

Tommy sees her reticence and he saunters over to her and smiles down, lifting her chin with his finger and forcing her to look him in the face.

“Liss, sweetheart, I promise you on my mother’s grave that nothing is going to happen to you as long as you’re with me. I don’t say that lightly; my mother was a goddamned saint to me. Now, I want you to make me a promise too,” he says and leans down to press his lips gently against hers before continuing, “I want you to promise me that you’ll relax, that you’ll try to enjoy being outside of these walls. I hope you know that I’ll bring you right back if it genuinely gets to be too much.”

 _It’s already too much_ , she thinks but doesn’t say it out loud. She’s placing a world of trust into Tommy and she knows he means what he says. She doesn’t want to be weak, doesn’t want to disappoint this man and sure as hell doesn’t want him to leave early or at all because he can’t take her cowardice.

She nods and kisses him back but her lips are tight against her teeth and she knows he can feel the tension. He hugs her close to him for a brief second and then takes her hand, pulling her behind him and out into the garage.

She follows him to his Chevelle and he opens the passenger door for her, even buckles her in once she’s seated. He grabs her purse off of the roof and hands it to her and his eyes go wide when he sees the stacks of cash inside there.

“Whatchu need all that for?”

“I thought it might be nice to buy some clothes that fit while we’re out. I also know we’ll need food and other stuff and I don’t use credit cards unless I can help it.”

“Where are you plannin’ on shopping in the ‘burgh? We have malls but I’m sure they aren’t up to snuff…”

“Look at me, Tommy. Do I look high pinky to you? Yeah, I have crazy money but right now I look like an orphan stuffed into someone else’s clothes.”

“I would agree with you if it you weren’t carrying a Michael Kors bag. And don’t give me any shit about knowing what that is. I had a client who screamed out _his_ name when I made her come, I was forced to look this fucker up after a certain point and I recognize the logo.”

Elissa laughs in spite of the fact that his casual comment about making some other woman come has her feeling extremely jealous.

“I would never call out anyone else’s name,” she mutters, thinking it was low enough that he didn’t hear her.

“If you did then I’d be forced to do something sexy and drastic to make you regret it,” he counters with a laugh.

“Challenge accepted,” she snarks and raises an eyebrow at him, hiding her embarrassment in his hearing her.

Tommy turns the engine on and hits the garage door button on the remote he’d swiped from the wall. He faces her and smiles, the expression a little devious and Elissa finds herself shrinking down slightly into the seat.

“You ever thought about being fucked in a car? Cause I’m thinkin’ I’d like to take some back roads, find a real secluded place in the middle of nowhere and just turn you out in my back seat.”

He leans towards her and chews absentmindedly on his bottom lip, his lids lowered to half-mast and his hand closing the space between them.

“I bet I could make you real happy in the back of this car. Or even on the hood. I’d lay you across that hood there and eat that pussy until you screamed my name. I’d find a place nice and open to park so that when you came and called out _Tommy_ it’d echo. Then, baby, I’d do it again.”

Elissa can feel how wet she is already and she closes her eyes, gulping loudly at the visuals he’s sending her with his words.

“Let’s go. Take me to a mall, let me buy some clothes, let me take you to lunch and dinner,” she whispers and then opens her eyes, “And then, you can do whatever you want with me.”

She leans in and bites his bottom lip, winking, “And I do mean whatever you want.”

Tommy waits for her to release him and then smiles, his eyes almost black with desire. He backs the car out of the garage and heads towards the front gate. The gates swing open when they sense the vehicle approaching and for the first time in too many years, just like that, Elissa is outside of her self-imposed prison. Her breath hitches in her throat and she tenses up as she watches the walls grow smaller in the side view mirror. Tommy reaches across the seat with his right hand and grabs her left. His touch calms her and she looks over at him.

He smiles at her, squeezes her hand to reassure her and then floors the gas pedal, making her gasp and then laugh.

“I figure we can hit the Ross Park mall. It’s a little more upscale and newer than most of the other ones. Lunch is up to you. The places I frequent in the ‘burgh are just little mom and pop places, greasy spoons I guess you’d call ‘em.”

“Then let’s go to your favorite greasy spoon for lunch and then I’ll pick somewhere for dinner.”

Tommy slips his hand from hers after another squeeze and drives with both hands on the wheel. Elissa grabs her phone from her bag and starts looking up five star restaurants in Pittsburgh. She smiles when she sees that there’s a Ruth’s Chris. She’s heard good things about the chain and figures Tommy is someone who can appreciate a good steak.

They’ll need some nice clothes for dinner and she’s sure she can find something suitable for both of them at the mall.

Leaning her head back into the seat she closes her eyes briefly. She’s nauseous but she refuses to share that with Tommy. It will pass, it always does.

“Liss?”

She opens her eyes and looks around, shocked to be in some sort of parking garage.

“Where are we?”

Tommy laughs and grabs the keys from the ignition.

“We’re here at the mall. You were out, babe. Snoring and possibly even drooling a little.”

“I was not drooling,” she protests but looks in the visor mirror to check her reflection anyway.

“I was joking. But you were out. I guess you needed the nap.”

Elissa smiles over at him and puts her hand on the door handle, willing the panic rising in her chest to go away. “Let’s do this, before I lose my nerve.”

“Wait there,” he says and hops out after locking his door. He walks around to the passenger side and opens her door for her then extends his hand to help her up. “Shall we?”

Walking into the mall is a whirlwind of sight, smell and sound and it’s almost too much for Elissa. She holds tight to Tommy’s hand as they enter the packed building and slide into the sea of bodies that move in every possible direction all at once.

Her attention is everywhere, gauging every face she sees, panicked that Grant could be here among them and she’d never spot him until it was too late. A sheen of sweat breaks out across her face and she pulls at Tommy to stop him.

“I…” but she stops, her words caught in her throat and Tommy pulls her close and makes a way for them through the crowd and into a clothing store.

“Listen, baby, you have to trust me. I know this is crazy hard for you but I’m gonna get you through this. Give me and you both some credit, yeah?” He cradles her face in his hands as he speaks and she nods, her skin so clammy and numb that she can’t even feel him touching her.

He puts his arm around her and then they’re back into the fray, surrounded by unfamiliar faces and not a single one is paying the two of them any mind. Elissa feels the panic start to recede and she wraps her arm around Tommy’s waist, pulling her body as close to him as she can without tripping him up. At this point, although she’s slightly calmer, if she could wrap her arms and legs around him like a monkey and ride him through this place she would.

“You see anywhere you wanna go in and look you just let me know.”

Tommy would never dream of coming to this mall or any mall otherwise but he’s not going to complain about being here when he knows this is more painful for Elissa than it is for him. He likes the feel of her pressed close against him; it brings out a protective feeling that he likes. He wants to make her feel safe, wants her to know that he’s willing to hurt anyone who comes near her. She points to the Macy’s down at the end of this section and he plows ahead, securing her to him with his arm and smiling as her grasp on his waist tightens slightly.

Walking into the store he feels out of place immediately. He can feel Elissa straighten in posture as she looks around. Spying a worker she walks over and smiles at them. Leaning in she says a few words lowly and slips something into the woman’s hand. The woman looks down for a second and smiles brightly at Elissa before motioning that the two of them should follow. She takes them into a back hallway and through a discreet door which opens into a very poshly decorated area with plush chairs, mirrors and what appear to be changing rooms.

“Welcome to Macy’s, I’m Kiera and I’ll be your personal shopper. Shall I bring you some champagne or wine before we begin?”

Tommy laughs, thinking it’s a joke but apparently it isn’t; Elissa nods and rattles off some long French sounding name and then turns to face him when the other woman leaves the room.

“So this is my compromise. Kiera will bring us both clothes to try on back here in the privacy of this room. And I do mean clothes for both of us. Where I plan on taking you for dinner is a nice place and our jeans won’t do. So indulge me and if it’s okay I’ll get us a room to stay here in Pittsburgh tonight.”

She pleads with him silently, her eyes wide and her mouth turned into a pout.

“Deal,” he says and leans in to kiss her neck.

Five minutes later Kiera is back with the champagne and two flutes. She pours the bubbly liquid for them as Elissa rattles off a list of what she’d like to try on as well as what she wants for Tommy. Tommy, for his part, is amazed that Kiera doesn’t need to write any of it down; he can see her mentally processing everything that Elissa says and nodding as she hands the glasses to the two of them.

“And bring it all at once,” Elissa demands, “and then leave us alone. There’ll be a nice bonus for you if you afford us some privacy.”

Kiera nods and heads out onto the sales floor to start gathering what Elissa requested.

“You have a way about you…” is all Tommy can muster and it’s meant to be a compliment; he hopes she takes it that way.

“It’s not so much a way as much as the simple fact that money can get you almost anything. Possessions, respect to a point, privacy, anonymity when you need it. A private dressing room…”

Elissa walks towards Tommy and sheds her shirt, revealing that she doesn’t have a bra on and Tommy’s pretty sure that she’s sans panties as well.

“Wait a minute,” he says, sure that Kiera will be back soon enough and while he’s a bit wild when it comes to sex he doesn’t care for an audience. “We can’t do that here…”

“Tommy,” Elissa taunts then clucks disapprovingly at him in mock disdain, “You’re not turning into a prude now are you? I mean I just slipped Kiera six hundred dollars for some privacy. I mean, I know it’s not some open field in the middle of nowhere but I’m betting my voice will echo up and down these halls…”

Tommy laughs and his look turns predatory as he meets her in the middle of the room. His hands go to her breasts and his fingers lightly twist her nipples, making them harder than they already were in the chill of the room.

“You want me to make you scream my name then I can do that for you baby.”

Spinning her around he pushes her gently into the wall and then reaches down and grabs her discarded shirt, using it to bind her hands behind her back before turning her to face him again.

“Just be careful what you wish for, princess,” he mocks before forcing her down into one of the chairs. He lifts her legs and rips her jeans off in one quick motion, taking her shoes off with them expertly.

He reaches to the table and grabs one of the champagne flutes and dips his fingers into the liquid then presses the dripping digits to Elissa’s lips. She sucks on them greedily and stares at Tommy with unbridled lust.

He pulls his fingers from her mouth and slides them up and down her slit, pressing into her nub as he passes and then without warning, he jams them roughly up inside of her. Elissa is wet, her cunt is hot and pulls at him as he pushes upwards, seeking the right spot. Crooking his fingers he makes a motioning gesture with them and Elissa gasps, her eyes wide.

“What is that?” She moans and he doesn’t answer but makes the gesture again.

“Shut the fuck up and come.” He growls and his words go straight to her center. She clasps him inside of her and her head falls back. This is some hot, weird kind of sex magic he’s pulling on her because she’s close already. Her eyes snap open when she feels him pour the champagne on her crotch and then lap at the liquid hard with his tongue while he moves his fingers inside of her again.

He’s staring up at her, sucking hard on her clit and working her g-spot with his fingers. His brow is furrowed with concentration and that look on his face is almost enough to get her off even without what he’s doing with his hand and mouth.

“Tommy,” she whimpers, not breaking the gaze and struggling against the shirt that binds her hands. She wants to pull his hair, to slap his face and then kiss the mark she’d make.

“No,” he commands, “you’re gonna fucking scream my name. You wanted this,” he growls and lowers his mouth back to her pussy and chews lightly on her clit. It’s so erotic it’s almost painful. She fights the swelling surge of release; she doesn’t want to give in, not yet. Tommy’s bringing out a side of her that wants a good fight. She’s going to make him work for this one. So far he’s played her like an instrument and she’s responded exactly how he’s intended; but not this time if she can help it.

Elissa grits her teeth and holds her breath. She closes her eyes and refuses to watch; it will be her undoing.

Tommy pulls his fingers from her and removes his mouth. Her eyes spring open and she makes a whining noise from the loss of sensation.

“Nuh uh,” he chides lowly, “you’re gonna watch me make you come. You’re gonna scream my name and come so hard you’ll drench this ugly chair so bad they’ll have to replace it. I hope they make you pay for it.”

His fingers slide back up inside of her and his mouth reclaims her clit. He sucks even harder than before and alternately massages the bundle of nerves with the end of his tongue.

“Jesus…” she gasps and pushes up into his mouth. Her arms ache, the muscles cramping but it’s nothing. All she can think about now is doing as he demands. It won’t take much more…

“Scream it,” he growls and then plunges another finger deep inside of her. His arm works faster as his fingers massage deep inside of her and his mouth devours her.

His name sounds sweet as it reverberates up and down the back halls of Macy’s and Elissa is more than sure she owes them a new chair for their private dressing room.


	20. Godiva and Getting Gone

Elissa is sheepish when Kiera comes back in and surveys the soaked chair. The personal shopper’s face is flushed; no doubt she’d heard what was going on only a few minutes before.

“I’m sorry… I spilled my champagne on the chair, of course I’ll pay for the damages,” Elissa says and looks sharply at Tommy to warn him from laughing at her obvious lie. “I’ll take everything you found for us. Please have everything except what we’re wearing and the things I have pulled aside on the rack there shipped to this address.”

Handing Kiera an address as well as an Amex Black credit card she smiles at the woman and leans in to whisper, “Add a fifteen percent gratuity on there for your help.”

Turning to face Tommy, Elissa holds her hand out and says, “You ready to take me to lunch? What’s the name of this place again?”

“Dales,” he answers with a smile. Elissa looks casually amazing in the jeans and blouse she’d picked out to wear for the day. He was comfortable in the clothes he’d worn so he’s put them back on to save the dressier clothes for dinner tonight. Taking her hand they say goodbye to Kiera and head out back into the mall. Tommy feels Elissa’s grip tighten when she sees the rush of people and he can feel her palm starting to sweat.

“It’s ok, baby,” he says and pulls her close to him before stepping into the fray. Elissa takes a little while to steady herself but soon enough she settles into an uneasy pace, pulling Tommy into a few of the smaller, more exclusive boutiques scattered amongst the chain stores. Seeing a Godiva shop ahead she urges him to walk faster. Buying chocolate covered strawberries, she smiles over at Tommy, thinking of lying naked beside him while they indulged in them together.

“Whatchu thinkin’ about?” He asks and returns her grin.

Tiptoeing so that she’s closer to his ear, she laughs and then says lowly, “Getting you alone, naked and doing things to make you scream my name, that’s what I’m thinking about,”

She watches as his eyes narrow and then gasps as he pulls her closer to him, close enough that she can feel his cock as it hardens and pushes into her skin through their clothing.

“You keep talking shit, Elissa, and I’ll skip Dales and eat you for lunch,” Tommy growls and leans down to kiss her. The only thing that stops them from going at it there in the store is the clerk clearing her throat as she tries to hand Elissa the box of strawberries. Blushing, Elissa takes them and pulls Tommy back into the mall.

“What’s the rush babe?” Tommy asks, laughing as she tugs at him to hurry back to the car.

“You’re having me for lunch.”

Now it’s Tommy who’s dragging Elissa behind him in his hurried attempt to get back to the car. She’s not making it any easier for him to be patient as she says things like “surely you know some back road far enough out so that you can fuck me on the hood of your car…”

He practically shoves her into the passenger side once they make it back to the Chevelle and she struggles with the seatbelt as he peals his wheels backing out of the space. Laughing at his frantic turning of the steering wheel she likes the control she seems to have now.

“Make sure it’s a place with a nice echo,” she teases as she lifts her ass up far enough to lower her jeans and panties to her ankles. Letting her knees drop to the side she slowly parts herself and she hears Tommy let his breath out in a slow hiss as she takes notice of what she’s doing.

“Fuck,” he mutters and she feels the car accelerate.

Leaning her seat back a little she lifts one arm above her head as she idly strokes circles on her clit and imagines that it’s Tommy doing it to her. She smiles as she realizes that she always had the mechanics of masturbation right; the barrier was the fact that she had no life experience, no ideal person to think about while she did it.

“Tommy,” she sighs and then pushes one finger up inside of herself, searching for that magical spot he’d introduced her to. Opening her eyes she looks over at him and watches him divide his attention between the road in front of them and the spectacle in his passenger seat.

He can’t believe how brazen she is when she’d been so scared only an hour before. She looks like a fucking goddess in the seat beside him and seeing her touch herself like this makes him painfully hard. He’s headed in the opposite direction of Dales now towards the outskirts of Pittsburgh. He knows of an old logging road that no one ever uses anymore and that’s where he’s headed. He can take his time there and not worry about getting caught with his pants down, literally.

Elissa sighs his name again and pushes a second finger up inside her cunt. He can see how wet she is when she pulls her fingers out, the skin glistens with her arousal and he knows she’s thinking about him; about something they’ve done together.

“One more,” he growls and she looks over at him through heavy lids. She starts to question what he means but he cuts her off. “One more finger; put three fingers inside your pussy.”

His voice is commanding and gruff, telling Elissa just exactly how much shit she’s in with him. She can’t believe how turned on she is and how brave she’s gotten with him.

She complies and gasps at the added pressure and the sensation of how much further it stretches the walls of her.

“Now fuck yourself faster,” he demands then licks his right forefinger and reaches over to lend a hand. He rubs her clit quickly and rough, causing her to match his pace with her own digits.

“You’re in so much fuckin’ trouble,” he warns and then takes his hand away, causing her to cry out in protest.

Making a hard left turn his wheels find gravel instead of pavement and he slings rocks everywhere as he floors the gas pedal in an effort to get to their destination quickly.

Pulling into a small grove of trees he turns the engine off and unbuckles his seat belt. Elissa is still pushing her fingers roughly into her slit, crying out as she nears orgasms. His expression is dark as his eyes watch her every movement.

“Come here,” he says as he undoes his pants and pushes them down to the floorboard; not an easy feat since there isn’t much room between his body and the steering wheel, “and don’t you dare fuckin’ come yet.”

Crossing the short distance between the two of them Elissa doesn’t need to be told what he wants. Her mouth slides over the head of his cock and she takes as much of him into her mouth as she can. His fingers are in her hair, tugging and pressing alternately, urging her to work faster and to take more of him in.

“You think you’re so cute, turning me on like that in public, making your little comments, getting’ me all worked up…”

He’s gritting his teeth as he watches the back of her head moving. The feel of her hot, wet mouth is enough to make him want to come all down the back of her throat but he holds out. He’s going to fuck her on the hood of his car just like he promised her.

Tommy pulls lightly on her hair and lifts her head up so that he can see her face. Her expression is almost dazed and a part of him is alarmed; wondering if she’s ok. Then she smiles and says, “Make me come, Tommy.”

He’s out of the car, stumbling because of the pants impeding his steps. He kicks his shoes off and walks around to her door, shedding his pants and underwear as he steps. Yanking open her door he pulls Elissa out, ass first and tests the metal of his hood before laying her down on her belly. He pushes her up onto her knees and wastes no time burying his face in her pussy.

She moans loudly and its music but he wants to hear his name on her tongue again. He bites on her clit lightly and presses his fingers hard into the sparse softness of her ass cheeks and gets what he wants. She screams his name and it echoes through the trees and into the valley surrounding them.

He stands and pulls her pants all the way off before positioning her knees on the bumper, placing her at the right height to fuck her from behind.

“I can’t get enough of you,” he groans as he presses into her. She’s so fucking tight and so wet for him that he’s dangerously close to exploding right of the bat. He slows his pace, determined that he’s going to make her come hard before he does.

Feeling Tommy enter her from this position is a new sensation. He’s fucked her from behind before but she was standing and he hadn’t gone as deep as he is now. His fingers are digging into her hips as he pulls her into his slow thrusts and she wants to beg him to go faster but she can’t catch her breath.

They moan together, the sound of his baritone blending with her breathy sighs as he quickens his pace.

“You gonna come for me, baby?” He growls and reaches a hand up to paw at her breast through her blouse.

His words are the catalyst to her release and she cries out again as he body convulses with orgasm. But Tommy isn’t ready to spill inside of her just yet, convinced that he can bring her to orgasm again. He waits for the clenching to subside and then pulls out of Elissa. Turning her gently over onto her back he pulls her blouse up and leans down, sucking one hardened nipple into his mouth as his fingers pinch and tweak the other one. Without use of his hands his cock finds its way back inside of her and he looks up, watching as her eyes roll back into her head. He keeps his thrusts slow and deep and Tommy growls as she wraps her legs around his waist. Standing up he smiles crookedly down at Elissa and grabs her by the waist before thrusting up into her roughly.

“You want it hard?”

She nods and bites her bottom lip, secretly unsure if she can take it as hard as he can probably dole it out.

Tommy unwraps her legs from his waist and pulls them up and over his shoulders. Her ass is suspended above the hood now as he stands up straight and slams into her. His eyes close and his head falls back as he lets out a low moan.

“Goddamn…” is all he can grunt as he pushes hard into her again. All thoughts of holding out until he can get her off again are out the window. She’s so fucking tight in this position that he won’t be able to hold off. His hips go into overdrive and he laughs as he feels her body head off into release again.

“Fuck,” Tommy barks, “you ready for me baby?”

His release is like a flood as his cock pistons in and out of her; it feels so good as he comes that it almost hurts. He says her name over and over, lost to everything but the sensation of his body encased in the wet heat of hers. He pulls her up off the hood while he’s still inside of her and kisses her deeply. Her arms snake around his neck and her fingers entwine in his hair as their tongues meet.

Tommy knows he’s falling for this woman but he feels powerless to stop it. She’s going to ruin him and he finds that he just doesn’t have it in him to care. All he can think about is how soon until he can be inside of her again.

Elissa groans as he pulls away from her; the emptiness once he’s out is almost too much to bear.

“Tommy, let’s find a nice room, order a light lunch from room service and get a nap in before dinner,” she begs, feeling suddenly exhausted and realizing that she’s pushed the boundaries of her ability already. Kissing him before sliding down off the hood of the car she feels a million years old now.

Tommy can see the weariness in her and he immediately feels bad. He’s pushed her too hard.

“Don’t even look like that,” Elissa warns and puts her hands on the sides of his face as she looks up at him, “You didn’t force me to do anything I wasn’t willing to do. Surely you’ve figured out that I’m not the type of woman who does anything that she doesn’t want to. But right now I’m really tired and I think a little food and a quick nap will do wonders.”

She smiles shyly up at him and adds, “And I know if I have you curled up next to me I’ll sleep even better.”

Tommy picks her up and carries her to the open passenger door, kissing her lightly on her face and for a fleeting second she lets herself buy into the idea that he really feels for her and not because she’s paying him to.

 _I could love you so easily_ , she thinks as he buckles her in and closes her door. Her eyes close briefly as he starts the car and when he asks her where they’re headed she gets on her phone and reserves the penthouse at Renaissance Pittsburgh hotel.


	21. Half As Much As I Love You Now

The bed is softer than anything that Tommy can remember laying on and from the penthouse window he has an incredible view of the Pittsburgh skyline. Elissa is asleep in his arms and he buries his nose in her hair and breathes in deeply. She smells like sunshine and a wonderful perfume that he can’t name. He runs his finger along her jawline and feels her move closer to him in her sleep. She’s sweating and feels warm to the touch but she’d told him that usually happens when she gets overly tired so he doesn’t worry too much about it.

He thinks about the fact that they only have three more days together in this little business arrangement and he tries to quell the dark feeling that comes with thoughts of leaving Elissa. He shouldn’t be so attached; he’s never had this problem before and he’s been with plenty of clients. Okay so maybe they weren’t as young, as beautiful or as rich as Elissa but that has nothing to do with it. All of his women are beautiful and unique in their own ways.

Tommy thinks back to what Seline had said to him about his hero complex and he wonders internally if that has more than just a little truth to it. He is dangerously involved in this situation with Elissa that most likely won’t have a good outcome. How can he possibly handle losing her to anything let alone the same monstrous disease that took his mother? How much is he equating the two? It’s not like Tommy to fall so hard and fast.

In fact, Tommy Conlon has never given his heart to _any_ woman. He’s had some flings since Sparta, a few in the military before that, but if he were to be honest he just hasn’t ever let his guard down enough to fall for anyone. It’s what’s made him such a good gigolo; he doesn’t get involved that deeply. Not to say that he doesn’t care about the women he fucks, he does. But it doesn’t go heart deep; it doesn’t involve the L word.

But can he say that’s the case with Elissa? The way he feels when he looks three days into the future tells him that would be a big negative. He’s let this shit go too far but he can’t see a way to turn it off. He dreads the hurt he knows he’ll feel when he sees Elissa in the rearview mirror come Monday morning. But she hired him for one week and one week only. Why would a woman like Elissa waste her time on a soiled, ruin of a man like him? He can’t even imagine how she might laugh at him if he turned to her and told her that he was falling for her and hard.

She’d probably be instantly suspicious. With all her money she should be. If Tommy were outside of the situation looking in he sure as fuck would be. _Rich, beautiful woman with one foot in the grave wooed by male prostitute_ seems like a headline that would make anyone look at him with a distrustful eye.

Worse than that, what if she looked at him with pity? She’s so fucking intelligent and all he knows is how to use his body to make headway in life. He’s an animated, fucking piece of meat without much going on upstairs as far as he’s concerned and so why would she want to deal with his dumb ass beyond these 7 days?

Feeling a little sick to his stomach, Tommy slides his arm out from under Elissa and sits up on the edge of the bed. He rubs his face and looks down at the plush carpet beneath his feet. He is a total alien in this world of privilege and he knows it. He’s a guest here but soon he’ll have to vacate before he starts to infect this realm with his commonness and stupidity. He doesn’t care about all the money or what comes with it. But the girl on the bed behind him is another matter. He gives a lot of fucks about her.

Walking to the bathroom he shuts the door slowly to keep the noise to a minimum. He thinks about the predicament Elissa’s in with the illness, her fears, and her isolation. He thinks about her assistant Jackie and how he doesn’t fucking trust her as far as he could throw her ass and that Doctor What-his-face… Laszlo.

It hits him, why that name is so familiar. A few years back there had been a doping scandal in the MMA community and one of the Doctors involved had been named Laszlo. But was it same doctor? Surely his license would have been suspended… but if he was helping Jackie somehow would it matter if it had been suspended?

Tommy’s mind races as he throws together a hundred different scenarios in his mind, none of them good. What if Jackie is after Elissa’s money? What if she hired Laszlo to help her kill Elissa?

Tommy shakes his head as he pisses and flushes the toilet. How could he possibly come to Elissa with this hare-brained shit? He’d really look simple to her after that wouldn’t he? Maybe he could ask her what she knows about Laszlo, perhaps incite enough doubt in her mind to look him up. She was a computer genius and found out his social security number in less than a minute, surely she could dig up any possible dirt on this guy.

And how much does she really know about Jackie? Did she research this girl before she hired her? As fearful as Elissa is he couldn’t imagine that she’d hire anyone without looking into their background extensively.

“Tommy?”

He hears Elissa calling for him from the bedroom as he washes his hands. Opening the door he smiles over at her as she stretches on the bed. She’s been asleep for almost four hours.

“I’m here,” he says softly as he walks across the too-good-for-him carpet and back to the soft bed.

“I dreamed you’d left while I was asleep,” she whispers and he notices that her eyes are teary.

“I’m here for as long as you want me to be.”

But Elissa hears a subtext of _as long as you pay me to be_ and it hurts. She wants to ask him to stay because he wants to, not because she hired him too. But Tommy Conlon is healthy and vital, he’s perfect and beautiful and he has everything that she doesn’t; mainly more time in this world. Why would he saddle himself with such a depressing mess as her?

Enjoy him while you can, she tells herself as he stretches out beside her. She imagines that he’ll come back whenever she calls but the idea of him going off and fucking her acquaintances after he leaves on Monday makes her feel like crying.

She looks up at his face and the tears fall freely. His brow furrows as he watches her cry and he pulls her closer to him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s the fever I think,” she lies and turns away from him to snuggle back against him. She doesn’t want to make him uncomfortable, doesn’t want to lose these next three days with him.

She can’t believe the feelings he’s bringing out of her and so quickly. She tells herself that it’s desperation. She knows that she probably doesn’t have much time left and she’s insane with the idea that she’ll die without ever having had at least one great love affair.

“Elissa, talk to me,” Tommy mutters into her hair as he lays kiss after gentle kiss onto the top of her head. It’s an intimate gesture and she sighs with happiness, buying into the illusion of freely given intimacy for a moment.

“Honestly? I dread Monday. I don’t think I’m ready to let you leave yet.”

Tommy smiles at her admission, feeling good about what he’s hearing.

“Then don’t.”

Neither of them say anything else, neither one of them is sure how to deal with what they said and heard so they let it go.

“Why don’t we get dressed for dinner? I have reservations at Ruth’s Chris and it’s less than half a mile from here,” Elissa says as her stomach growls. She’d only had half of a chicken salad croissant for lunch and her body was protesting.

“Sounds good,” Tommy says, laughing at her noisy stomach. He gets up quickly and dresses in the clothes Elissa had bought for him earlier. Inside he wishes this were a real date, one where he would go to her house, pick her up in his car and take her out on his dime.

Elissa heads into the bathroom to grab a quick shower and put her face on. She wants to look amazing for Tommy tonight so that maybe by the time Monday comes around he’ll love her half as much as she already loves him now.

Forty five minutes later Elissa steps out of the bathroom and into the bedroom of the penthouse. Tommy isn’t anywhere to be seen so she peers quietly into the sitting room of the penthouse. He’s on the phone with someone and he’s speaking low so she only catches snippets of what he’s saying.

“…don’t know what to do… feelings… feel like I’m in over my head…”

She breathes deeply and wills the tears to stay away. She isn’t hearing anything she didn’t already know, that Tommy is getting that she’s feeling something for him and it’s scaring the shit out of him, but somehow hearing it from him, even if she’s impolitely eavesdropping, hurts like a motherfucker.

She steps back into the bedroom and sits down on the bed. What a fool she must look like to him. She’s sure now the only reason he’s staying is because of the money and his pity for her situation. Well if it’s money she can handle that. She has more money than common sense and she’ll spend every last dime she has to keep him close. But she can’t handle any pity from him. So from now on it’s not going to do to show him any sign of illness or weakness, no matter what.

Inside the sitting room Tommy is on the phone with Seline and doesn’t see Elissa stick her head in and then bow out again.

“I’m telling you Seline, I am feeling this woman, and I don’t mean in just a sexual way. How can I tell her without coming off like some money grubbing weirdo? I mean I’ve only known her for a week or so and only been with her physically for four days.”

“Tommy, she’d be a fool not to take you,” Seline says from her end of the connection and there’s so much hidden meaning in those words that Conlon isn’t picking up on. If Tommy had felt this way about her then there wouldn’t be Freddie waiting for her in Florida.

“Listen I bet she’s about done so I’m gonna get offa here, I’ll call you again when I can.”

Saying goodbye he hangs up and heads into the bedroom to find Elissa sitting on the bed. She looks like a vision in her dress. Her hair is up in a beautiful mass of curls and she smells incredible.

“You look…” He starts but can’t find ample words to finish. Elissa smiles up at him and stands, barely hiding the sway in her body. She still feels weak and tired but she’ll be damned before she shows it to him.

“You look pretty good yourself,” she says but there is a terseness to her words that leave Tommy feeling a little confused since it doesn’t match the smile on her face.

He holds his hand out to her and she meets him by the door. Impulsively, Elissa puts her arms up and around his neck before kissing him aggressively.

“I hope you gather up your strength during dinner because you’re going to earn your money tonight.”

It’s a jerk thing to say but she feels like maybe it’ll even the playing field and at least make Tommy think that this is still just a business arrangement on her end.


	22. Fucking and Fighting, It's All The Same

Her words cut him to the quick. They shouldn’t; after all this has been a business arrangement from the get go. But any thoughts he had about coming to her as anything but a hired set of genitals goes out the window with that one sentence.

He forces a smile and takes Elissa by the arm, willing the shaking in his hands to stop. Why does he care? Any time spent with her for any reason is good for him and his wallet. Essentially it boils down to the god’s honest truth that he’s falling for this woman and she’s just put him in his place.

Now any other time, if someone pulled some rank and file shit like this with him Tommy would give them a one finger salute and be on his merry fucking way, no questions asked. It was his way of protecting himself, it always had been. Anger cuts off hurt at the pass and all is good in Tommy’s world. Cut them to the bone before they get a chance to cut you; pre-emptive action always made him feel better. But he can’t imagine looking at Elissa and telling her to fuck off no matter how angry he might be.

As they ride down the elevator to the waiting car she’d hired the tension in the air is so think it’s almost palpable.

“Tommy,” Elissa starts but doesn’t finish because he’s too busy staring a hole in the wall. She expects it to burst into flame at any second from the intensity of his glare. He either hadn’t heard her say his name or he’s chosen to ignore her. Either way, Elissa is startled and puzzled by his actions or lack of.

In the car she knows it’s a very short ride but it feels like an eternity before they pull up in front of the steakhouse. Tommy, ever the gentleman, helps her up and out of the car but drops her hand as soon as she is steady on her feet. She almost reaches for it but decides against it. He doesn’t seem like the type that you want to force your attention on so she walks one step ahead of him to the maître d’s station.

Soon enough they’re seated and Tommy is looking at the menu with his brow cocked.

“What? What’s wrong?” Elissa asks and Tommy doesn’t look at her.

“There’s no prices on this mother fucker,” he says lowly and peers at it harder as if by doing so the amounts will magically appear.

“It doesn’t matter,” she offers but Tommy cuts her off, his voice all business and unlike any way he has addressed her.

“It matters to some of us. Some of us still have to worry about money.”

“Tommy, I’m paying…”

“No. I’ll buy my own dinner thanks.”

He turns a cold expression to her and she literally shrinks back in her seat. What the hell is going on? She wants to confront him but can’t seem to formulate the words without fear of making him angrier.

Dinner is a bust. She can’t summon the will to take more than a couple bites of her steak and Tommy ordered only a salad and some sort of appetizer. He barely touched anything either. Feeling on the verge of tears, Elissa excuses herself to the ladies room and has a mini breakdown in the privacy of a stall. Replaying the evening before over in her mind she can’t pinpoint the exact moment when things went sour. The last thing she’d really said to him was that he was going to earn his money this evening.

Shit… could that have been what upset him? But, he’s a man and a hired man at that. Could that have possibly hurt him? Surely he would have appreciated that she was keeping things business-like and hiding the fact that she was head over heels in serious like with him.

 _Bullshit Elissa_ , she chides herself, _you love him and you know it._ But does she really? How would she know if she did? She’s never been in love and what if this is just the desperation of a sick and dying woman like she’d pondered before. She’s only been trying to be fair to the man, to not drag him into the drama of her sickness and the business of dying. It’s not going to be pretty.

_No babe, you have to let him go Monday morning. But for now you have to smooth things over so that you don’t end it on a bad note._

Heading back out to the table she sees Tommy settling up his check with cash and she scrambles to find her credit card so that she can pay for her own meal. Not wanting to embarrass him by going against his wishes to pay for his own meal, she still feels horrible that she’s taken him to such an expensive place. Sucking up another surge of sadness at the tremendous invisible gap that stretches between her and Tommy now she straightens her spine and walks back towards the server with her card in hand.

“Add a thirty percent gratuity to the total for yourself,” she says, hating that her voice shakes and sounds as if she might cry again. Tommy looks at her and his mouth opens as if to speak but he looks down at the table instead and chooses to focus on finishing his water instead of his thought.

The ride back to the hotel is torture and she thinks about packing up what little she brought and leaving for home tonight but the thought of traveling back to the mansion alone terrifies her. She’ll have to wait until tomorrow when she’ll ask Tommy to take her home and back to the safety behind her walls.

In the lobby she stops to take her heels off; they’re making her calves cramp up fiercely and she can’t take anymore. She reaches a hand out for Tommy but he ignores her.

“I don’t want to hold your hand for shits sake, I would appreciate the help balancing,” she snaps, unable to take his coldness anymore.

“Well then, by all means your highness. Let your paid servant help you out.”

Standing up and staring him in the eye she seethes, “Just exactly what has crawled up your ass and laid eggs? You treated me like shit at dinner…”

“Oh don’t even go there with me after your fuckin’ comment about me earning my money tonight? You think that shit didn’t eat away at me?”

Elissa stops, her mouth open, her mind disbelieving what he’s just said. Apparently the expression on her face gives her away and it only seems to make him more pissed. His face reddens and his voice gets louder, echoing all across the marble lobby of the hotel.

“What, you think just because I’m a prostitute I don’t have feelings? I can’t care about someone or get hurt when they say something shitty to me? You know, Elissa,” he growls and adds a sarcastic tone to her name, “there is a person attached to the cock you like to have fucking you. So let’s go upstairs so I can earn that money you keep pushing at me. Let me get you good and fucking wet so I can slide what you’re paying for up inside of you.”

Tommy grabs her hand and pulls her towards the elevator. She’s only got one shoe on now and the noise of her bare foot slapping on the marble attracts as much attention as had his words seconds before.

“Tommy! Stop!” She cries, trying to pull her hand away. She doesn’t want him like this; she wants to explain herself because him knowing the truth would be less painful than this angry version of himself that has completely misunderstood what she’s been trying to show him. He doesn’t listen, choosing instead to pick her up in his arms and carry her to the elevator.

“Put me down!” She whispers vehemently but he smiles at her instead of doing so. The smile is ugly, full of venom and anger. She feels like his opponents in the ring must have just before he commenced to beating them within an inch of their life. He’s channeling all that anger into getting through his own hurt. She struggles in his arms to no avail and just as they reach the elevator she slaps him hard through the face. She’s had enough.

“Go to hell,” he growls and sets her down on the floor before turning and walking towards the parking garage. Fear and panic overtake Elissa and she tries to call after him but her voice is gone, choked off by her terror. She tries to walk after him but her feet are cemented to the floor and she hears the ding of the elevator behind her. Fear pushes her into the box and takes her high up to the top of the hotel into her room where she doesn’t feel any safer.

Tommy makes his way to his Chevelle and has every intention of starting the car and heading to his house in the ‘burgh. His intentions don’t turn into actions though and all he can do is sit behind the wheel and berate himself. He’d manhandled her, scared her. He’d been able to feel how her heart was thundering in her chest as he’d held her close to him. He’s not sure what would have happened if he’d gotten her up into the room. Nothing good…

He can’t leave. Tommy knows that right now Elissa is up in that room thinking the worst things possible about him. Now that the anger has passed he can’t handle the idea that she believes him to be some kind of monster. He has to make things right.

Heading back into the hotel he doesn’t look at anyone, afraid of what he might see on their faces. Maybe he’d see what he’d learned to accept was the expression his mother reserved for his father, especially after a long night of drinking. It was like she’d been looking at the devil and knew that he’d come to collect his due. Fear wasn’t strong enough a word to describe it. It was that and so much more.

The only expressions Tommy had ever worn for Paddy was disgust and hatred. What if Elissa looked at him like that now?

Pressing the card the front desk had issued him into the Penthouse slot in the elevator he heads up to where he knows she’s at, more scared to face her than any opponent he ever had in the ring.


	23. Avec un amour si profond

Elissa doesn’t make it much further than right inside the penthouse door before she falls onto her knees. Blind panic sets in and she can feel her heart beating so fast that her chest hurts. The only thing that she can think of is that she is an agoraphobic, alone in an unfamiliar city and her personal assistant is all the way in Ibiza.

It was stupid to allow herself to be lured outside the safety of her home by a man she barely knew. A man she thought she was in love with. But she never would have imagined he would turn on her the way he did. And yet she wanted him still, wanted to make things right with him because he was important to her. He mattered in a world where very few before him ever had. Somehow that man had found a seat in her heart and soul in a matter of days and goddamn her if she didn’t love him. It only took him leaving her for her to be able to admit it to herself.

Her breathing is shallow and she knows she’s on the verge of passing out. It happens with the severe anxiety and truth be told it’s the best thing for her. Only in that blackness can her body override her mind and get back to the business of breathing properly and slowing down her thundering heart rate. She doesn’t fight it, rather welcomes it as a respite from her distress. Maybe once she’s awake again she can make arrangements to get home.

Tears slide down her face without any accompanying sounds; she’s too winded to cry out loud but her heart feels like it’s been put through a shredder. Maybe she can make things right with him, she thinks as she slides into a dark abyss of unconsciousness.

When Tommy steps inside the penthouse he’s about to call out her name but sees her slumped on the floor. He picks her up in a panic and sees her tearstained face. He presses her mouth to his ear and is relieved that he hears normal breathing. She’s cried herself to sleep, he thinks, and it’s entirely his fault. Carrying her to the bedroom he undresses her down to her underthings and takes a sharp breath when he sees the lingerie he’d picked out. She’s even more beautiful in it than he had imagined. The black fabric against her creamy, pale skin looks like a painting instead of reality. He lays her on the bed and covers her up before stripping down to his briefs and crawling next to her.

In the morning he’ll make things right; in the morning he’s going to tell this woman how he really feels, come hell or high water. Maybe they don’t have a whole lot of time left together but he’s determined that he won’t waste a minute of it.

 

When Elissa opens her eyes in the breaking daylight the first thing she sees is Tommy’s eyes. They’re the same familiar color but the expression there is a new one. Gone is the cynical hardness that was ever present; instead now she sees an unguarded softness and when he looks back at her, recognizing that she’s awake, the smile on his lips reaches those eyes. She studies the crinkles that form at the corners as he grins softly and she can’t help but smile back even as memories of last night come back. She wants to be angry but she can’t.

“You came back,” she whispers and closes her eyes again as his hand places a gentle touch on the side of her face.

“I’m sorry, for everything,” he says, his voice raspy with emotion.

“I’m sorry too, I never should have made that comment about money,” Elissa whispers and puts her hand atop his, pressing his palm into her cheek as the tears weave a crooked path down her face and across the bridge of her nose.

“I’m just scared,” they both say at the same exact moment and then the minutes that follow are filled with silence.

“When I was in Iraq,” Tommy says softly, “I lost my best friend, Manny. He died in my arms. We got hit by friendly fire.” He takes a deep breath and swallows hard, not believing that he’s actually talking about this.

“It wasn’t just Manny though; my entire platoon got wiped out. I was the only one who wasn’t killed instantly or didn’t die soon after. It was like, one fucking inch to the left or right and I would have been a dead man but for some reason I was spared. I deserted the Corps. Went AWOL and found a way back in country. Maybe I didn’t die alongside my men that day physically, but for a long time I was dead inside. I mean, why me? Manny had a wife and kids waiting for him back home. I had no one and yet for some fucked up reason I couldn’t figure out, God or whatever power that decides these things, spared my life.”

Elissa wants him to stop, wants to tell him it’s okay and that he doesn’t have to relive this but she can’t find words and so he continues.

“I just kind of existed. I went through the motions of a living person but I felt nothing. I got in the ring and no one could touch me. All I felt was anger and I used that to beat people down. It’s what took me to the final round at Sparta. Love is what lost it for me. Because I loved my brother, I couldn’t keep that rage goin’, I couldn’t keep pretending that I didn’t love Brendan or that I didn’t know deep down inside that he deserved that win more than me. And I can’t pretend that I ain’t feelin’ something for you Elissa. I know it’s crazy soon, I know you have your health to worry about but I am fallin’ for you in the best way.”

Elissa starts to speak but Tommy silences her with a soft finger pressed to her lips.

“Just let me get this out, baby,” he says, dreading the rejection he knows is coming and wanting to delay it as long as he can. “I know you have every reason to be suspicious of me, of what I’m saying to you. And I know I’m just some guy you hired to sleep with you. I don’t have much to my name but I’m working on changing that.”

Sitting up in the bed, Tommy pulls Elissa’s head into his lap and runs his fingers through her hair as he goes on.

“I’m not a whole person yet, I’m not sure that I ever will be. But there’s something about you that makes me want to try and be a better man, a complete person. Not just some fragment of a human being scraping by. I want to be with you, I want to take care of you, and I want to help you get better. I don’t think the people around you have your best interests at heart. Maybe it’s not my place to say but I don’t trust Jackie, I don’t trust that doctor. I think you should get second and third opinions. I think there has to be more options for you out there. When we met you told me that you planned on fighting this shit. Well let me fight with you. Let me be with you, Elissa.”

As suddenly as they started, his words run out and he’s staring into her eyes, silent and waiting; praying that she doesn’t just laugh at his raw honesty because it would kill him if she did.

“Tommy,” Elissa says and he groan then slams his head back into the headboard. Here it comes, he thinks to himself and he braces.

“I don’t know if I’m reading what you’re trying to tell me right or if it’s just wishful thinking… but, I love you too.”

Tommy’s eyes spring open and he looks down at her in surprise. He can’t think, can’t breathe, and can’t process what she’s said.

“I don’t know how it happened or why but I’m not going to fight it. I haven’t felt this vital, this alive in a long time. And I want your help. I want to learn how to live again without fear. I want to be able to leave the walls of my home and not cringe. I don’t want to be a victim anymore.”

Tommy doesn’t say anything else. He slides down on the bed beside of her, propped up on one elbow and kisses her gently. There’s so much more going on now than a physical need. There’s an emotional connection now and he wants to seal the deal of telling her how he feels but not fucking her, but making love to her. That’s something that he’s never done with any woman but he’s willing to bet that his body can take the lead and not disappoint his heart or hers.

Elissa wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him down to her, sighing into the kiss and feeling warmth spread throughout her entire body. This was the kind of thing she’d been naïve enough for years to believe was possible and cynical enough in recent times to laugh at as a myth.

Tommy deepens the kiss and he feels Elissa respond. He’s exhilarated and terrified all at once with what’s come to pass now. He’s declared himself; he’s left himself open for grievous wounds that only someone you love can inflict. His hearts racing, partly with that fear and partly from the fact that for the first time in his life he’s kissing someone he loves. It’s his first time and he knows she’s the woman to share this with.

“You’re shaking,” she whispers as his lips move to her neck.

“So are you,” he responds between kisses on her collarbone.

Elissa pushes him onto his back and climbs astride him, never breaking eye contact. She likes that he’s shaking and that he seems vulnerable for the first time that she’s seen.

“Let me make love to you Tommy,” she whispers and leans down to claim his mouth again. He nods and moves his hands to her hips as he bites his bottom lip.

There’s something so tender, so unjaded in that one action that Elissa falls a little harder for him having seen it. This is Tommy before Iraq and whatever other shit had hurt him and put him on guard and she feels privileged to have gotten a glimpse of it.

Elissa positions herself over him and slowly slides down onto his cock, taking him in like a lock accepts the right key. He fills her without pain, fits as if he were made for her. She sighs and lets her head fall back as she slowly lifts up and repeats the movement.

There is no rush, no frantic, fevered movements or grasping. Every motion has meaning and depth, every sound coming from the two of them a response to what was happening in the moment. Elissa lets her head fall forward and she looks down at Tommy. His face is so peaceful, almost reverent; his brow is smooth, his mouth is slightly open and his pupils so large the blackness has eradicated all the pigment of his irises.

“Elissa,” he moans and the sound of her name on his lips is music. His hands on her waist urge her to move a little faster and she complies. She knows he’s close, it doesn’t matter to her if she comes or not this time because it’s about Tommy. She feels like she’s taking his virginity in a way.

He comes without a sound, his eyes wide open and never leaving her face. His expression is so beautiful to her that in the final seconds of his release she joins him.

As they lay there in the bed afterwards, her prone on his chest and listening to the thrumming beat of his heart, she smiles as he runs his fingers lightly down the skin of her back, bringing goose bumps up in their wake.

“I love you, Elissa,” he whispers.

“I love you too, Tommy.”

Maybe, she thinks, love can stop the inevitable business of her dying and him not being able to follow.


	24. Sex Burrito

Saturday was spent in bed. There was some sex but mainly Tommy and Elissa talked. He told her all about his childhood, how his father had been a no good drunk who beat his family and then how he’d run with his mom. Then he admitted to her that he’d lost his mother to cancer and they’d just held onto each other, neither one wanting to say the words that might make Elissa’s illness all too real.

When Tommy had asked about her childhood she’d started to clam up but then decided that he’d opened up to her about some very painful things so it wouldn’t be fair for her to withhold.

“I was born to a 17 year old mother and my father skipped out before I was born. Poverty, I guess, would have been an upgrade to what I lived like as a child. I remember going to bed so hungry some nights that I would chew on the inside of my mouth until my cheeks were raw. My mother always seemed to have money for alcohol though and she was a damned mean drunk as well. My only reprieve was my grandparents.”

Elissa had sighed with the memories of those times when she’d been free of her mother and with the two people who loved her. “My mother was a jealous person. She didn’t want me but she couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else having me either. My grandparents wanted to adopt me but she wouldn’t allow it.”

Tommy had pulled her close and her first instinct was to pull away because she thought he might be feeling sorry for her. But she’d snuggled closer to him, realizing he only wanted to comfort her.

“I left home at 13. Both my grandparents were gone by that point. I was homeless for a while, found some places to stay with friends, and got my GED when I turned 16. I worked a bunch of dead end jobs before I realized I was headed down the same path as my mother. So when I turned 17 I filled out every grant and scholarship application I could get my hands on and got into college. And I built an empire from a community college degree.”

There was something else, something she couldn’t share with him. Something she had only ever told her mother about and that woman hadn’t believed her… Elissa had pushed that monster back into the closet, determined that the fanged memory never see the light of day again.

Saturday night had been room service, some champagne, a few hours of slow, unhurried joining of their bodies and more conversation. Tommy had told her all kinds of stories about Manny; some bringing laughter and some came with tears.

“I hated that mother fucker at first. Seriously, he was so upbeat and fucking happy. Bro woke up with a smile on his face every morning. I didn’t understand him at all until I finally asked him what he had to be so fuckin’ happy about. That’s when he showed me pictures of Pilar and the kids. They had so much love; he cared so much about his family. I never knew that dads could be that way. How could I hate the bastard after that?”

Tommy had pulled out the well-worn picture of Manny and him that he carried in his wallet and Elissa could tell that he’d looked at it often, probably to keep his friends face fresh in his mind.

“I wish I could have met him,” she’d offered and Tommy had kissed her forehead.

“Yeah, me too babe.”

She’d fallen asleep in the safety of his arms and for the first time she could remember she’d woken up feeling good. There had been no aches, no sickness; she actually felt rested.

Although the sun hasn’t breached the horizon yet, Elissa picks up the phone and orders a huge breakfast, speaking softly so she doesn’t wake Tommy.

She looks over her shoulder at him and smiles at the expression on his face. He looks almost childlike in his innocent, unworried repose. Something has passed between them that nothing and no one can ever take away. It bothers her that she’s hiding her biggest secret from him but him knowing won’t change the past. What was done to her as a child can’t be undone and all that knowledge would do is color how he looks at her. Although it would probably go a long way in explaining why she held onto her physical virginity into her thirties. But that’s a moot point now; the man she’s staring at solved that problem very skillfully.

“I can feel you starin’ at me,” he laughs without opening his eyes.

“I ain’t even sorry,” she says, mimicking his Pittsburgh accent and standing up off the bed. “Breakfast will be here in about 45 minutes. I’m going to hop in the shower.”

Sliding under the hot water, Elissa leans her head back and closes her eyes. She feels different this morning in a way she can’t define. She’s smiling, replaying how Tommy had crawled between her legs in the wee hours of the morning and brought her to several orgasms with his lips, tongue and fingers. Her hand wanders down to her cleft as she pictures his face, the way he’d looked up at her with such concentration as he’d worked her into frenzy.

She feels Tommy slide in behind her under the spray of the hot water. His hands snake their way around her waist and his lips make contact with the back of her neck. Her skin reacts with an outbreak of goose bumps and she leans back into the embrace.

The shower here is not as big as the one at home but still larger than most. It’s not long before she’s turned to face him. The kisses turn voracious and Elissa slides down the wall of his chest, landing lightly on her knees with his engorged cock in front of her. She can think of nothing but tasting him, swallowing him and making him come.

She leans forward and circles the head of his member with her tongue, looking up at him through the spray and smiling as his eyes turn that darker shade as they always do when he’s aroused.

“Baby,” he moans and winds his fingers into her mop of wet hair. She takes him into her mouth, working the underside of his cock with her tongue and using her hands on the parts of his length and balls that she can’t accommodate with her mouth. She watches the muscles of his thighs tense up and release with every motion she makes and her gaze unerringly makes its way back to his face. She doesn’t want to fuck him to conclusion; she wants to finish him this way first. Then she wants to have him between her legs, introducing the top of her head not so gently to the penthouse headboard.

Tommy watches Elissa in a daze; her mouth feels hotter than the water beating down on his shoulders and back. Soft, wet, velvet scorching his skin as he takes him in and releases him in an agonizingly slow pace. Her dark hair is plastered all around her face and his fingers are woven into the strands. It’s all he can do not to push forward; to try and find his way deeper into her mouth and throat.

It’s a blur of motion and Elissa finds herself being lifted up off of the shower floor and into the air. Tommy has her hoisted and seated on his forearms with her back against the shower wall. He penetrates her in one smooth but hard motion and Elissa cries out as they join.

Tommy’s hips piston upwards as his arms support her weight. Her hands are on the sides of his face and her mouth falls open but no sounds come out. He’s literally taken her breath away with the sensations his body is bringing out of her.

“Tell me who you belong to,” he growls, his eyes burning her, his expression ferocious. “Tell me you’re mine.”

Sucking air back into her lungs she whimpers at first, too close to coming to formulate a thought. Then Tommy slows his pace, coming to a near stop, withdrawing and pushing in just the head of his cock before backing out again.

He leans his mouth in close to her face, unblinking and deadpan, “Maybe you didn’t hear me little girl. I asked you who you belong to.”

“You,” she says in a breathless whisper, “I belong to you, Tommy.”

He smiles and slides his length in its glorious entirety back up inside of her.

“You’re goddamned right you do.”

As he speeds up his thrusts and nears release, he can sense that Elissa is close so he angles and hits where he knows will make her come. As she cries out again and pulls his face to hers to cover him in kisses he mutters one single word as he spills inside of her.

“Mine.”

Afterwards they wrap up in robes and sit in the dining nook, looking out over Pittsburgh as the sun rises and they munch on the veritable buffet of breakfast goodies Elissa had ordered up.

Elissa looks up at Tommy with a smile on her face, barely containing the laugh at her private thoughts.

‘What?” He asks with his mouth full of eggs.

“You’re like a… never mind.”

“No, tell me,” he says, smiling and wanting to know what she’s thinking that’s so funny.

“It’s stupid!”

“Tell me dammit or I’ll think of some way to get it outta you,” Tommy threatens and does his best to look mean.

“I was just thinking you’re like a… sex burrito.”

“A… sex burrito?”

“Stupid I know,” she says blushing.

“Nah, explain it to me.”

“Well, you’re a sex god. But you’re also like a burrito. So many layers, so many ingredients. Every time I think I have the recipe figured out I find a whole new layer or some new, exotic spice thrown in the mix.”

“Yeah? And what brought this on?”

Elissa smiles and looks down at her plate, her half eaten omelet spilling cheese, spinach and mushrooms onto the hotels best china.

“When you said I was yours. I don’t know… I guess I really like that. Being yours.”

“You don’t mind me saying that?” Tommy asks. He’d wondered if maybe he was taking things too far, maybe going in a wrong direction. He’d remembered as they were drying off how she’d told him about Grant being possessive and insane. Tommy had worried that his declaration might have frightened Elissa.

“No and I know why you’re thinking that.”

Elissa leans forward, resting her elbows on the table and looking Tommy in the eye. “It’s not the same thing. Grant wanted someone to control, someone to own. I feel like you want to love me and protect me. Not the same thing, not even close.”

Tommy reaches across the table and takes Elissa’s hand, pulling it closer before leaning his mouth down and kissing the soft skin on top.

“I will always protect you. And I meant it when I said I love you.”

Elissa looks at his expression and she feels the same way in that she wants to protect him. But how could she? Why would he need her to? But all the same, she knows in her heart of hearts that if it came down to it she would give her life to save his. And isn’t that what love is? Putting someone else’s needs before your own and sacrificing anything for their happiness and well-being?

Tommy pushes back from the table and stretches his arms above his head. Elissa grimaces as she hears a cacophony of pops issue out of him.

“Wow,” is all she manages before wondering if she could convince him to let her chiropractor work on his spine.

“Elissa, let’s talk about your doctor. When you told me his name it rang a bell but I couldn’t figure out why. But a day or so ago I remembered that a while back there was a Doctor Laszlo involved in a doping scandal with some MMA fighters. I can’t say for sure if this cat is the same guy but ya have to admit, the name is not a common name. How much did you research this guy?”

Elissa is confused at Tommy’s words. “I didn’t, I mean why would I research the guy? Jackie found him for me.”


	25. Of Officers and Security Cameras

“You mean you don’t know anything about this doctor that’s been giving you drugs? You looked up my social security number but the man who tells you you’re ate up with cancer, nothin’…”

Tommy is incredulous; he’d been so sure that she would have done her homework on Laszlo. Shit, she’d looked up more than his social and all he’d done was slept with her. This man had been responsible for her either living or dying. And now, dying is not an option. Tommy refuses to entertain losing her, not when he’s only just found her.

“Jackie told me he came highly recommended by a friend of hers, she said he’d treated her Hodgkin’s and she’d pulled through. Why would Jackie lie to me about it?” Elissa looks truly confused; she shakes her head as if to clear the idea from her mind with the action.

Elissa’s eyes are huge and with every word Tommy says she feels a little more of that monstrous doubt creeping up her spine, towards her brain. Was it really necessary that she should have done a background check on this guy? He’d been prescribing medications for her for nearly a year now. She’d known Jackie since she moved to Pennsylvania. Jackie had never given her a reason to doubt her loyalty.

“Did you look into Jackie’s background before you hired her?” Tommy questions as nonchalantly as possible with the rising fear he’s feeling.

“Yeah, I did. I was still super paranoid and I wouldn’t have even hired anyone except I was too scared to sleep in that huge house alone at night.”

“How did you find her?”

That’s the part that Elissa had never really figured out. Sure she’d put a listing out on a very high end website that matched personal assistants with powerful people but Jackie had come knocking before her ad had even been placed on the website. She’d always assumed that someone on the inside of the firm she’d posted with had given Jackie the heads up. She decides to withhold this information from Tommy for now.

“Through a firm called The Riley Company, they place personal assistants with needful employers. But I did my own independent background check and I promise you she couldn’t be any sweeter if she was carved out of a block of sugar. Clean as a whistle, never had so much as a parking ticket. All her references checked out, high praise from ever former employer. There wasn’t any dirt on her at all.”

“But babe,” Tommy says and stands, stretching his arms up and starting the symphony of pops and cracks from his spine, “isn’t that kind of weird? I mean, doesn’t everyone have a speeding ticket or something on their record?”

Elissa had thought the same thing when she’d been checking Jackie out electronically but once she’d gotten to know her she’d come to realize that the woman was as straight as an arrow, a little OCD and she liked things to be in order at all times. She was an ace at helping Elissa manage her life and had been a blessing since she’d been hired.

“I ain’t saying Jackie isn’t on the up and up. I just…” Tommy stops midsentence, afraid to say anything else for fear of upsetting Elissa.

“What, what is it Tommy?”

“I found something she’d written and thrown away, something about a chemo cocktail or something. And the second time I showed up she didn’t look happy that I was early. I don’t know what to say Elissa; she doesn’t sit right with me. I’m not psychic but I do trust my instincts. I… maybe I’m just too protective of you. But I think we should do some research on Laszlo.”

Elissa smiles at Tommy and says, “If it will make you feel better then I say let’s do it.”

Looking down at her hands she asks him quietly what his plans were for the following week. She doesn’t want to demand that he can’t continue in his current occupation but she hopes he just knows that if he wants to be with her he has to go legit with his work.

“Babe,” he says softly and lifts her face up so he can look her in the eyes, “If we’re together, and to me we are, I won’t be with anyone else, in any way. I can pick up extra clients to train, go totally legit. Sure the money ain’t as good but it don’t matter to me.”

A tear slides crookedly down Elissa’s cheek; she’s so relieved to hear him say this that she can’t respond with words, can only nod and wipe her eyes.

“That being said, I think I do owe it to my former business associates to tell them in person that my services are no longer available. I hope that doesn’t upset you. And when I say in person I just mean telling them face to face that I’m out of business. It’s a fine line I walk, I can’t upset anyone because I don’t want the world to know what I’ve been doing.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you,” she whispers and stands. ‘Well I suppose it’s time to get packed up and head home. We have one last evening together as business partners. Tomorrow I’m going to make sure everyone knows that you’re **_my_** man. Oh shit!”

“What?!” Tommy asks, alarmed and standing quickly to go to her side.

“I’ll have to fire Gudrun!”

Tommy tries to stop the smile but when Elissa cracks, her laugh and the irrepressible snort that followed filling the room, he follows suit.

“She had the best potato salad,” Elissa protests through her silly tears, “but I guess it’s a sacrifice I’ll have to make.”

They pack in silence, giving each other a smile here and there or touching each other as they pass. It’s an easy silence, the kind that occurs when two people know each other well enough to not feel obligated to fill the emptiness. Once the things are packed Tommy picks Elissa up from behind and carries her to the bed. Nothing is said; he just parts her legs and slowly climbs between them. The only sounds that break the quiet are sighs, the sound of his body joining hers and the creaking of the bedframe as it takes the brunt of his weight colliding into hers. Afterwards as they lay together, his forehead pressed to hers and the sweat of their efforts combining as they touch, her phone buzzes on the bedside table. Elissa kisses Tommy and smiles as she reaches for her Blackberry.

Tommy watches his lover, takes in the grace of her every movement and the way her face lights up when she grins. He likes being responsible for that grin. He wants to make sure that she always has reason to smile. But as he thinks this he watches her face turn darker, sees her brow furrow into worried lines.

“Babe, what is it?”

“It’s my alarm system. Someone’s broken into the house. The police have been notified.”

Tommy grabs the hotel phone and calls for the hotel to send someone up to retrieve their bags as they dress hurriedly. As the bellhop takes their things downstairs, Tommy grabs Elissa and pulls her to him, kissing the top of her head.

“Babe, I’m sure it’s nothing. But you don’t have to worry anymore. I got you, I’ll always have you now. Nothing is going to hurt you.”

He feels his anger peak as her body shakes violently beneath his protective hold. If he has to work at making her feel safe for the rest of their lives it’s what he’ll do.

 

The ride back to her compound, as Tommy has come to call it mentally, is quiet. Her hand never leaves the cradle of his and he can feel the tension in her fingers. She’s terrified. It’s written in her body language, her expression, even the way she’s chewing the insides of her cheeks. He doesn’t take it as she isn’t sure he can protect her; he sees it as someone has petrified this woman so badly that she’s a nervous breakdown waiting to happen.

There are two squad cars outside the gates when they pull up. Elissa reaches into her purse and uses her phone to open the gates and the police cars follow them in.

Tommy parks in front of the fountain in the same place he had the first day he’d come here. He makes it out of the car and to Elissa’s door before she can make a move to open it herself.

“Ms. Cade?”

Elissa smiles weakly and holds on to Tommy’s arm, “Yes, please call me Elissa.”

“We’ll go in now and check the house out. If you wouldn’t mind, we’ll ask you two to stay outside until we give the all clear. Most times it’s a false alarm and I don’t expect this is more than an animal getting into your place and setting this off or maybe just a system malfunction.”

“Holy shi… crap,” says the second officer, tipping his hat back and smiling widely, “you’re Tommy Conlon.”

He offers his hand and Tommy takes it, frowning but shaking it and nodding.

“Big fan, man, of you and your brothers,” the man blurts, drawing a glare from the first officer. The officer drops Tommy’s hand and smiles ruefully. As the two policemen walk into the house Elissa and Tommy hear the first one chiding him.

“Jesus Christ Brad, fangirl much?”

“Fuck off Sam…”

Leaning back against the Chevelle, Tommy pulls Elissa into his arms, resting his face snugly into the top of her head he breathes in the smell of her shampoo and closes his eyes. They remain locked this way until they hear the officers come back to the fountain.

“Ma’am, we checked all the windows and doors. We found everything locked tight, no signs of forced entry, nothing seemed out of place to us. But if you’d like we’ll do a walkthrough with you since the place is so big.” The one called Sam is all business but Brad still has stars in his eyes as he stares at Tommy. Elissa suppresses a giggle; she isn’t sure if Brad is just a fan or if he wants to climb Tommy and have his way with him.

She realizes that everyone is staring at her so she clears her throat and says, “That won’t be necessary. I’m sure it was just a malfunction. I appreciate your time, officers.”

Tommy ends up giving Brad an autograph and Elissa laughs as Sam gives him more shit as they head back to their cars. Elissa grabs Tommy’s hand and they head into the house together. Her stomach is in knots as she heads to the library, pulling him along.

“Where we goin’ babe?” He asks, confused as to her urgency. Hadn't she just sent the police on their merry way?

“We need to look at the video footage… just to make sure,” she gasps, her heart pounding, her head feeling light as if she might pass out.

“Video footage? You got cameras in the house too?”

She doesn’t answer, merely opens the panel to her security office.

“Goddamn,” Tommy mutters, impressed. “That’s some straight up James Bond shit right there.”

Elissa drops his hand and climbs into the swivel chair behind the bank of computers and monitors. She searches through the video backwards to the time that she received the alarm notification on her phone.

Tommy is looking around with his mouth open in amazement; he’s thinking to himself that she’s got more shit than Best Buy up in here. Elissa’s cry makes him turn to her, his body tense and ready to fight. She’s got her hand over her mouth and tears forming in her eyes.

Tommy goes to her and puts his hands on either side of her face, “Elissa, what is it?”

She points at the screen and cries silently, forcing Tommy to turn and look. On the screen is a figure in a hoodie, blurred as it’s been frozen midstride as it comes through the sunroom doors.

“It’s Grant, he was in my home.”


	26. Please Stay

Tommy and Elissa sit together in the outer part of her study, away from the monitors and the whirring of hard drives.

“How can you be sure it was him?” Tommy growls, barely able to control his desire to rip someone apart.

“It was Grant, the build, the way they moved. It was him.”

“How did he find you?”

“Tommy!” Elissa gasps, exasperated, “I don’t know. I took every precaution, every measure to hide my whereabouts. Only the ones who needed to know were told and those people I can count on one hand.”

“So who were they?”

“My great aunt who has since passed away, The Riley Company because they HAD to know and my accountant in Tennessee. Those are the only people who know or knew of my location.”

“So I figure your aunt would never do that to you, your accountant wouldn’t because he doesn’t want to lose your business. So that only leaves The Riley Company. Or maybe Jackie…”

“Tommy,” Elissa says, trying to control the tremor in her voice, “Jackie is not like that.”

Tommy stands and starts to pace the office floor, his hands wringing the hem of his tee just to keep from punching something.

“You admitted that Jackie showed up before the ad had even been placed. Did you call and confirm her being a part of the Riley Company?”

“No, but…”

“Jesus fucking Christ ‘liss, this woman lives in your house, you entrust your care, your fucking LIFE to her and you haven’t looked far enough into her background!” Tommy’s yelling, too worked up to notice how Elissa shrinks from him. “You say you’re paranoid and scared but baby, I know more about the old man who makes my fuckin’ cheesesteaks than you do about your personal assistant.”

Seeing the effect his words and the volume of his voice are having on her, he softens his tone and sits beside her again, feeling a twinge of regret when she scoots away slightly.

“Elissa, one thing I know is true. When you take away all the impossible, you’re only left with the possible. Jackie is the only answer as to how he found you.”

Elissa nods and smiles, it doesn’t reach her eyes and Tommy begins to appreciate just how badly shaken she is.

“Whatever the reason, baby, we’re going to find out how this fucking freak found you. You don’t have to be scared anymore. I’m here and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” Tommy places his finger under her chin and lifts her face to look her in the eye. “You believe me don’t you?”

“Yes, I believe you Tommy.”

“Good. Now I’m thinking that I’ll run down to the kitchen and grab us a couple beers and we’ll head out to the pool for a while. That sound good to you?”

“Yeah,” Elissa sighs as she leans her head onto his shoulder.

As he stands and heads out the study door she calls to him, stopping him in his tracks.

“Yeah baby?” He asks as he turns to face her.

Time seems to slow down for Tommy as he sees a figure approaching in his peripheral. He hears a gunshot and sees Elissa fly back into the sofa. He watches as her hand goes to her chest and then instinct kicks in. He kicks his leg out and sends the gun flying out of the hand that held it. Grabbing, pulling, his mind shuts off as he rips the hood off of the face it obscures. As he pulls his hand back to throw what probably would have been a fatal punch his mouth opens in surprise.

“Gudrun?”

He’s got her by the neck and he squeezes, enraged somehow by the fact that it’s her and not some phantom ex-boyfriend.

“Let her go Mr. Conlon.”

Tommy doesn’t obey, instead turning towards the voice commanding him. He can see it’s Jackie and she has a gun pulled on him.

“Oh so this is it, you’re teamed up with this fuckin’ cunt to kill Elissa?”

His hands squeeze harder and he can hear Gudrun gasping for breath.

“Mr. Conlon, I am a federal agent assigned to protect Ms. Cade. I’ve been monitoring the situation with the person you’re currently suffocating. I’m not the bad guy so please, don’t make me shoot you.”

Tommy releases his grip and Jackie turns the weapon on Gudrun and orders her down on the ground. Within seconds she has the woman cuffed and is calling for an ambulance for Elissa. Tommy rushes to her side and sees the blood pouring out of her. So much fucking blood… he does his best to stay with her but his mind goes back to Manny, seeing his body torn to shreds, feeling his spirit leave him as Tommy had held him in his arms. An inhuman cry comes out of Tommy and he pulls Elissa to him.

“Elissa,” he sobs and looks down at her face.

She’s ashen, drained of color but her hand makes its way up to his face and she wipes at the tears that come down like a waterfall from his eyes.

“Shhh,” she says, “It’s ok, it doesn’t hurt. I’m ok…”

“When’s that fucking ambulance gettin’ here?” Tommy screams and puts pressure on the wound to try and stop the bleeding.

Looking back down at Elissa he sees her leaving him, he can feel her leaving him. He pulls her to his chest and tries his best to will her to stay with him.

“Don’t you fuckin’ leave me!” He spits, his tears flying as he rocks her back and forth, trying his best to convince her to fight; to stay.

“Let me see her, let me try to help her Mr. Conlon,” Jackie says and he screams at her, the sound of a wounded animal filling the room. “I can try to help her Tommy. Let her go.”

Tommy releases his grip and helps Jackie lay Elissa on the ground.

“Keep pressure on the wound,” Jackie barks as Tommy rips his shirt off to use as a compress.

He watches as the life leaves her, as the breathing stops and as her pupils in the eyes that seem to be begging him to save her dilate until he can no longer see the color of her irises. Jumping up Tommy screams and pulls at his hair. He knows other people are coming in the room and that efforts are being made to bring her back. All he can see is Gudrun on the floor, watching and smiling at Elissa.

“WHY?” He rages at her and slaps her face roughly to wipe the smile from it.

“Fuck you,” she spits back and him, all pretenses of an accent gone. This bitch isn’t even German.

He lunges for her but hands are holding him back.

“I have a heartbeat!” He hears someone call from behind him and he turns, trying to see what’s going on. They’ve ripped Elissa’s shirt open and he sees they’ve shocked her heart back into beating. He sags to the floor and openly weeps with relief as they load her on a stretcher.

“I’m coming with her,” he says but Jackie is in his face again.

“You can’t because you’re not a relative nor are you married. But I’ll have someone drive you to the hospital. Okay?”

Tommy nods numbly and follows who he assumes is another agent out to a sedan. Nothing is said on the way to the hospital but he’s appreciative that the agent follows the ambulance closely, breaking speed limit laws and getting him to the hospital in record time.

The agent takes him into the ER Tommy can hear him telling the charge nurse that any and all updates with Elissa Cade are to be relayed to Tommy ASAP. Then the man comes over and kneels down in front of Tommy and looks at him.

“You will be notified as soon as any news become available, Mr. Conlon.”

“Thanks man, for doing that…”

“Oorah, my brother. I’ll be outside if you need anything.”

A fellow marine happened to be the one who’d driven Tommy to the hospital.

 

 

6:00 pm          A surgeon comes out and starts throwing a lot of words at Tommy. Things like penetrating trauma, hemopneumothorax, and pericardial tamponade. Tommy shakes his head at the surgeon and simply says, “Is she gonna make it?”

“Mr. Conlon, I can’t answer that. There was a lot of damage internally and she lost a lot of blood. But I can tell you that for now, she’s stable. We’ll be moving her up to ICU on the 6th floor and as soon as we have her situated we’ll come get you. I’ve been told that you are her boyfriend and that she has no next of kin, is that correct?”

Tommy realizes that the agent must have told them this so he nods his agreement.

“Normally in a situation like this we don’t allow anyone who isn’t family or a spouse to stay but it seems like you have important friends in the Bureau.”

 

10:00 pm        Tommy’s chewing on his hands, sick and anxious as he rides the elevator to the 6th floor. When he walks into Elissa’s room and sees her hooked up to a ton of shit he feels faint. The nurse seems to sense this and she guides him to the bedside chair.

“Whoa there big guy, you hit the floor and I don’t think I have enough nurses on staff to pick you up. Easy…”

Tommy sits and places his hand over Elissa’s. “She’s so cold… Why is there so much shit hooked up to her?”

“Well she’s on a ventilator, that’s the thing over her mouth, going down her airway. She’s not able to breath properly on her own so the machine is doing that for her. She has a chest tube to drain fluid from her lungs, she’s on IV meds to prevent infection which is common with chest wounds and she’s on several monitors to make sure we stay on top of what’s working and what’s not.”

The nurse, whose nametag reads Danielle Chu, pats him gently on the shoulder and makes notes in Elissa’s chart.

“Mr. Conlon, I’ll be down the hall at the station if you need anything. Just press the red button on the call hanging on her bed rail.”

Tommy nods, his body feeling numb and his heart aching like never before.

 

2:00 am          Tommy falls asleep in the chair and wakes up with a scream in his throat and his body covered in sweat. He looks over at Elissa and watches as the machines move air into her lungs, stares at the IV bag that he’s sure had been changed during his brief nap.

“Elissa, please stay,” he whispers as he caresses her hand. He doesn’t close his eyes again for the rest of the night and Elissa doesn’t open hers.


	27. Troubled Waters

**_Wednesday, three days after the shooting._ **

Elissa hasn’t responded to stimuli, hasn’t opened her eyes. The doctors come in and tell Tommy that there isn’t any hope. He stands and eyeballs the doctor until the small man leaves. Tommy returns to the bedside and takes Elissa’s hand, holding it until the skin warms again, forcing all the love and hope he can muster through his touch into her body. He talks to her until his voice is hoarse. Telling her about Manny and his mother; sharing Marine Corps boot camp stories and admitting that he’s never loved anyone the way he loves her. He cries when they’re alone, begging her to stay with him, begging her to open her goddamned eyes, pleading for her to come back and be with him.

**_Thursday, four days after the shooting._ **

Tommy spends his time in the bed beside Elissa, cradling her as much as he can with all her wires and hoses. He sings to her in his gravelly voice, songs his mother used to sing to him when he was small and fell ill. You are my sunshine… The nurses can’t bear it, every time they hear him sing they leave the room crying. He stares at her face, willing her to blink, to come around, to look at him. She gives him nothing but he knows she’s going to wake up. She’s still in there, still with him and his love will be enough to bring her back.

**_Three Weeks in intensive care._ **

Tommy has learned the exercises that the nurses do to keep Elissa’s muscles supple and prevent atrophy. He won’t even let them bathe her any more. He knows every alarm, what every wire on her leads do, and he watches her face, waiting for the moment she opens her eyes, analyzing every tiny facial tic. He doesn’t believe the doctors when they tell him that his love is brain dead. He swears at them and orders them the fuck out of his face. He doesn’t want Elissa to hear that bullshit. He whispers to her, telling her not to listen after they’re gone. He can feel her close; he can sense that she’s still there with him. So he doesn’t give up, he goes through the motions every day of working her muscles, washing her hair and body, kissing her lips gently and telling her how much he needs her. He reads that shitty Cosmo to her, answering the quizzes the way he thinks she might and swallows the anger when he realizes that he’s losing time with her, precious time that he can’t get back. But he tells himself that it won’t matter, as long as she wakes up, as long as she comes back to him. He’ll spend the rest of his life making it up to her that he didn’t protect her like he promised.

**_Two months after the shooting._ **

Elissa is transferred to long term care. Tommy is paying for her care until her lawyer sorts out her finances. One day as he’s blankly eating the lunch that the nurses bring to him, Jackie walks in the room and looks at him sadly.

“The fuck you want?”

“Mr. Conlon,” she says as a greeting and then walks up to Elissa’s bedside.“You know, I was assigned to her because we were going to take her down for hacking. Elissa Cade wasn’t a saint by any measure, she had some shady dealings.”

Tommy stares at her, feeling his anger build. Why is she even here and why the fuck was she talking about Elissa like she was already gone?

“Then when we got wind that Laszlo was treating patients again we figured if she cooperated then we’d cut her some slack because he was a bigger fish. She really did have cancer but it was in remission. Laszlo hadn’t told her because she was paying him for his meds. Black market shit. They never reached her, I always switched them with a real, FDA approved drug. Then, after her tests came back that she was in remission we gave her placebos, trying to get as much on him as we could. She was never in any danger… not from him anyway.”

“Why in the fuck are you here? I won’t ask again and don’t think I won’t lay hands on you cause you’re an agent and a female.”

“I thought you’d want to know why Gudrun did it.”

She has Tommy’s attention now and she pulls a file from her bag.

“Her real name is Geneva McMillan. Fraternal twin of Grant McMillan.” Jackie stops and waits for the info to add up. “She was the sister of Elissa’s stalker. Grant is dead; we finally identified him as a John Doe they pulled out of the Holston River a few years back with the help of a DNA sample from Geneva. Mr. Conlon… Tommy,” her voice is softer now, “we had no idea she was anyone other than who she claimed to be. We were looking for Grant, protecting her from him but didn’t expect that her personal chef was a danger. Geneva has given us everything to indict her on a first degree murder charge. It was planned out well ahead of time. She blamed Elissa for Grants disappearance, believed that she had paid someone to kill him.”

“Go now.” Tommy growls in warning as he stares at the file. He can’t look at the Agent; he blames her for not being there sooner, for stopping him from killing that bitch. He blames himself for not realizing that the danger was still inside the house.

Jackie leaves without another word and Tommy is alone again with Elissa. The machine pushes air into the tracheotomy that she has now since her body had started to reject the intubation with an infection. The whirring and hissing of the machinery grates on his frayed nerves and he gets angry.

“Wake up! Elissa goddamn it wake up! Grant’s dead. His sister is locked up. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. Wake up and FUCKING LIVE!”

It’s nothing but the whirring and hissing mixed in with the sound of his own angry sobs well into the night.

 ** _Two and a half months after the shooting_**.

Tommy spends as much time as he can at the long term care facility but his finances have been drained and he has to start training people again just to cover her bills. The lawyer is taking his dear sweet fucking time and Tommy is fearful that if he doesn’t keep her bill current they might decide to turn off her life support one day when he isn’t there. He knows inside that they can’t do that but panics at the thought of losing her.

He sleeps in the chair next to her bed, too scared to climb in with her anymore, afraid that he might roll in his fitful sleep and undo something that’s keeping her alive. He dreams constantly that Manny is grabbing her by the arm and trying to pull her to the other side. Many times he’s woken himself up screaming to the point of hoarseness and yelling for his dead brother to leave her alone.

Brendan has visited, finding out from who knows about Elissa and hunting Tommy down. Praying with him; crying with him and for him. Begging him to go home for a little while and offering to stay with this woman that he doesn’t even know so Tommy could get a break. But the answer is always no; what if she slips away when he’s gone?

The nurses do their best to tend to the bedsores and to scoop up Elissa’s long brown hair that falls out before he can see it on the pillow. Tommy has a lock of it in his pocket tied in a blue satin ribbon, one he’d cut from the negligee she’d worn the night he’d taken her virginity. She’s still his beautiful Elissa, even as she wastes away and the doctors talk about needing to take parts of her off in surgery. The answer for now is no, even though he isn’t qualified to make those decisions for her, and the medical staff listens. But he can see the sympathy in their eyes and it makes him want to choke them out. Mainly, he’s angry because he’s starting to give up hope.

**_Three months after the shooting._ **

Tommy sleeps fitfully on a cot beside Elissa’s bed. The nurses had been tortured with the sight of Tommy’s large frame shoved and contorted into the recliner night after night and had found this better alternative in storage. They changed his sheets when they changed hers and even did his laundry for him. Every one of them had fallen in love with Tommy Conlon for his devotion to Elissa. He never had a hospital meal; they all fought over who was going to cook the next meal for him at home. He wasn’t blind to their kindness but he lived in a fugue state these days. Tommy was only going through the motions now.

As he dreams he expects the usual tug of war nightmare with Manny but this time is different. He’s at the pool at Elissa’s house, staring down at the water as she breaks the surface. Her hair is full and down to her waist; she is healthy looking instead of thin and gaunt. She reaches for him and he pulls her out of the water, hugging her close.

“Tommy,” she whispers in his ear gently.

“Don’t say it. Don’t you fuckin’ say it,” he cries.

“You have to let me go, Tommy.”

“No.”

“I can’t stay; you have to let me leave.”

“I can’t be alone, ‘liss.”

Laughing, Elissa takes his face in her hands and looks at him, her blue eyes boring into his, “You won’t be alone. You’ll never be alone again.”

Elissa grabs his hand and puts it to her stomach.

“You’ll never be alone again baby,” she whispers and nods at him.

Tommy is shaken awake by the charge nurse, her face is ashen and he notices the doctor behind her looking afraid to speak to him as usual.

“There’s something we need to tell you Tommy,” she says, her voice fraught with emotion. “We took a blood sample and…”

“She’s pregnant,” Tommy finishes and the doctor merely nods before leaving the room.


	28. Burgeoning

Tommy measures Elissa’s growing bump almost daily. He tells her about the life growing inside of her and how if it’s a boy he’s naming him Garrett and if it’s a girl he picked out the name Elissa Elizabeth after her and his grandmother.

The doctors have to take both of Elissa’s legs from the knee down because the infection threatens the baby’s well-being. It’s not an easy decision for Tommy but he knows Elissa would tell him that their child comes first so he finally relents and allows the amputations.

Tommy still falls asleep beside Elissa on the rollaway cot every night and every night he meets up with her in his dreams. She’s always healthy and in this construct of unreality her stomach swells in sync with real life. Sometimes they’re in the hotel in Pittsburgh, sometimes they’re by the lake his mother used to take him and Brendan to when they were younger and sometimes they’re nowhere he knows for real; someplace made up he supposes. But the location doesn’t matter, all he cares about is that in his dreams she is there, she’s healthy and her skin is warm under his touch.

Tonight they’re by a river on a blanket and the dream is so real that he can smell the scent of honeysuckle and hear the croaking of a chorus of frogs. She’s beside him and he’s holding her.

“It’s not good for you to keep holding on Tommy. Our time is over, baby.”

“Don’t say that. I’m not ready to let go.”

“Tommy, the future is here and I can’t stay. But you’ll always have a part of me with you. Our baby is your chance to keep a part of me with you always. I know you’ll raise her to be a proper young lady and give her all the love she needs and deserves.”

“’Liss I don’t know anything about being a father…”

“You know EVERYTHING about being a father, Tommy. It was tragic the way you were raised, yes. But take all the hard things that you went through and use them as lessons. You remember how you were made to feel. Just make sure that our little girl never feels that way and you’ll be the best dad ever.”

“I don’t know if I can do this alone,” he says as the tears start. He has many reasons to cry but right now he’s feeling totally overwhelmed. “Wait, did you say little girl?”

Elissa smiles at Tommy and presses a kiss into his lips. “Yes baby, Elissa part two.”

Elissa stands and sheds the white flowing dress that is her common garb in his dreams and Tommy stares up at her flawless skin and the curve of her pregnant belly. She takes his breath away.

“Now we say goodbye in the best way we know how.”

Getting to his knees, Tommy kisses her stomach and leans his head into the swell. The salty stream of his angst flows freely, down his face and onto Elissa’s bare feet.

“I can’t…”

“Tommy, make love to me one more time…”

How could he tell her no? It was this deed, while more feral and less an act of love in the beginning, that brought them together and it’s only fitting that it’s how they say farewell in the end.

Tommy lays her down gently on the blanket and looks into the blue eyes that know every corner of his soul so well. He kisses her fervently, doing his damned best to let her know that she will always be his love and that he will never live a day that wasn’t dedicated to her memory and what they shared too briefly on this plane.

Shimmying out of his clothes as quickly as possible Tommy lies behind her and lifts her leg, sliding inside of her and moving slowly. All he wants is to feel her, smell her and listen to her breathe. The ache is slow to build and he plants kisses on the back of her neck and shoulder as she makes the little cries and whimpers that tell him he’s doing what she likes. The river rushes behind them and the sun sets as Elissa cries out and he feels her body clutching down on him, bringing him to release. His tears never cease because he knows that soon he’ll be awake and he knows that Elissa won’t come to him anymore in his dreams.

“Don’t go,” he whimpers, holding her close but she’s gone from his arms like the wind through trees.

“NO!” He cries out but quiets when he sees her standing in front of him and smiling down.

“Listen to me Tommy, my love, there is going to come a time when you’ll want to give your heart away again and I don’t want you to think twice about it. Do it. Be in love and give Little E a mother. You won’t be betraying me; you’ll be making me happy. I’ll be watching over you and our baby and… well, let’s just leave some surprises for the future.”

Winking at him she presses her fingers to her lips and then blows the kiss to him before turning and walking into the tree line. And just like that, she’s gone.

The pillow beneath his head is drenched in tears when he wakes up and the room is different. Elissa, and whatever it is that makes a person who they really are inside, are gone. Leaning over her body he realizes that now she’s just a lifeless shell being kept alive by machines so that their baby has a chance to be born.

 

 ** _Five months later_** :

Elissa Elizabeth Conlon comes into the world pink, healthy at 7 lbs. 3 ounces, screaming and heartbreakingly beautiful at 9:00 a.m. exactly via cesarean section. Tommy is in the delivery room, sitting my Elissa’s head and staring at her face as the doctors deliver their daughter. Elissa will be taken off life support the following morning so the doctors sew her up and carry on as if it’s any normal C-section delivery. The reality of fatherhood doesn’t hit Tommy until he hears his daughter cry out and take in her first breath. To say that he’s a sobbing mess as he’s handed his baby girl for the first time is an understatement.

“’Liss,” he whispers through his tears, “She looks just like you baby, ‘cept she’s got my mouth all the way.”

He kisses Elissa, both of them, and then hands the baby back to the nurse. Sitting on the tiny stool next to the woman who should have been his wife, he leans his head into his hands and allows himself to cry one more time before steeling his resolve and being the man he has to be for their child.

The nurses take considerable time that night, teaching him how to prepare and warm a bottle, how to burp the baby and finally coaxing him into changing her diaper. Her tiny body looks even smaller in his large hands but those hands that used to rain down abuse on his opponents were like satin when caring for the little girl.

Sitting in the rocking chair someone had moved into the room he lulls his child to sleep with the back and forth motion all the while looking at Elissa and wishing things could have been different. But he doesn’t cry anymore, not on the outside. But he knows he’ll cry on the inside for a great while to come.

One of the nurses comes in and takes Elissa back to the nursery so that Tommy can get some rest. He’s nodding off as he hears a familiar voice say his name. His head jerks around to the door way and when he sees her he’s on his feet in seconds.

“Hey Conlon,” Seline whispers and smiles at him, swiping at her tears.

Grabbing her into his arms he holds onto her like a drowning man. They say nothing, just stand there and hold each other for an eternity.

Heading down to the cafeteria, the silence is comfortable and Seline hooks her arm through his. Once at the small round table with sludge disguised as coffee in front of them, Tommy tells her everything. How they met, the love he felt for Elissa, what happened, who shot her and where things stood now.

Seline just lets him get it all out, knowing that he needs to be heard and nothing more.

“Well, you could look at it like a modern day tragedy because most everybody would. Or you could look at it like the gift that it really is Tommy. Baby, you do realize that most of us stumble through life and NEVER get that kind of love from anyone. You had it, and yeah it fucking sucks that it’s gone and that she’s gone, but you had it.”

Tommy nods and stares at his cup, unable to say anything.

“So I was wondering if you need a roommate. The Florida thing isn’t working out after all.”

Tommy looks up and cocks his head at Seline.

“Yeah, it turns out my knight in shining armor was actually just a prick in a rusty pick-up. He decided that me not being able to conceive is a big deal after all.”

Tommy frowns, trying to decide just how hurt Seline really is and she punches his shoulder lightly.

“Don’t worry about me. I knew it was not good when he started in on how hot pockets were disgusting and ripped on my favorite movie.”

They laugh but the sound is hollow until Tommy adds, “To be honest I never thought The Breakfast Club was that great either…”

Seline turns serious when she tells Tommy, “I didn’t know any of this but I got worried when I never heard from you about the townhouse. I finally tracked down your brother and reached out to him, just told him that I was a friend and worried about you. He told me where to find you and explained the situation so I wouldn’t be walking in blind.”

“I’m glad you’re here Seline,” Tommy says and throws back his coffee. “Let’s head back up; Little E will be ready to eat again soon.”

“Little E? For real Conlon?”

Seline stays with Tommy and helps him with the baby that night but leaves the next morning at six. Tommy tells her that when the time comes he just wants it to be him and the baby there to say goodbye.

The next morning, exactly twenty four hours after their daughter was born, Tommy places the baby in Elissa’s arms. All the wires and tubes are removed except the heart monitor and the tracheotomy that is still breathing for her. The urge to see their daughter in her mother’s embrace just once is unbearable and Tommy gives in, snapping a picture because it will be the only one that he’ll have of the two of them.

Little E stares up at her mom’s face, her mouth a perfect O and her hands reaching through the swaddling and up to her mother’s chin.

“That’s mommy, baby,” Tommy coos and then leans down, kissing Elissa’s forehead.

Tommy picks the baby up gently and then smoothes Elissa’s hair back as he nods at the openly weeping nurse to turn off the respirator.

The constant whirring noise of the last endless months is silent and he counts the heartbeats as they grow further apart in distance and then stop altogether. Taking a deep breath he turns and walks out of the room with his daughter in his arms.


	29. Snapshots

Elissa Elizabeth Conlon was quickly nicknamed Ellie as a toddler when Little E became too much to say while chasing after her; she never really walked but instead went straight to running from crawling. Big blue eyes, thick brown mane, total diva attitude with the trademark Tommy lips made her the object of everyone’s affection. Every night before bed Tommy would take the framed picture from the nightstand and tell her the same story. They would lie next to each other and he would regale her with how her mother was a Princess who stole his heart almost overnight. Ellie would ask, without fail, why her mommy couldn’t stay with them, and in the beginning, all Tommy could say was that she was just too good for this world and that God needed her to help him run things in heaven.

But like children always do, she grew in body and in mind and he dreaded the say when his fairy tale wouldn’t be enough to satisfy her curiosity. He wasn’t sure what he would tell her or how much or even when.

Seline moved into the townhouse with them and promptly decided that they needed a bigger place. She found a single family home with four bedrooms in a quiet suburb and they moved into it when Ellie was a mere 7 months old. She converted the basement into a suite for herself and gave the upstairs to her best friend and his beautiful baby. That arrangement lasted for four years and then one night, during a routine evening when they’d cooked dinner together and had dined at the same table, Tommy took her by the arm after Ellie was in bed and led her upstairs to his room. He undressed her, made love to her, cried with her and they’d become an unofficial couple. Seline was an easy answer to his loneliness. She knew that a part of his heart would only ever belong to Elissa and she was ok with that. Neither one wanted to confuse Ellie so for nearly two years they’d tried to hide it from the child. One day, Ellie looked at them both and at the very precocious age of 6 asked when they were getting married.

At nine, Ellie served as the flower girl at the wedding and had brought the entire gathering to tears when she spoke up during the ceremony. After the pastor asked if anyone had anything to say, she’d said loudly, “I do!”

With everyone’s eyes on her she announced that although no one could ever replace Elissa as her mother, she was glad to have had Seline for as long as she could remember and that she was thankful to her mother in heaven for making the arrangements. Tommy had scooped her up in his arms and held her so tight and with his daughter between them, they’d sealed the ceremony with a kiss and had taken a family honeymoon to Hawaii.

Tommy spent all his time making sure that Ellie knew that she was the boss of herself, that she did not need a man to complete her and that if anyone ever even looked at her funny he would find a deep hole to toss their lifeless body into. Ellie would always smile and tell her daddy that she wasn’t worried about it and he shouldn’t be either.

When she was 13, Ellie decided that she was old enough to know what she called the “real” story about her mother’s death. Tommy sighed heavily but agreed and together they looked at the journal Tommy had kept while he’d sat beside Elissa’s bed day after day. He told her the truth without a sugar coating and then they held each other as Ellie mourned her mother for the first time. Tommy also told her that she was the sole heir of her mother’s 28.4 million dollar estate and that there was a castle with a portcullis that belonged to her. He also told her that it would all be hers as soon as she was 21 and that he hoped that knowing how wealthy she really was wouldn’t change her mind about college.

At 17, Ellie went on her first date with a kid named Steven and Tommy scared the kid so bad he nearly pissed his pants. But Ellie was home by 11 sharp and it turns out that Steven wasn’t a bad kid after all. Suddenly the weekends became family plus one on all their outings. Ellie dated Steven exclusively all through high school. Seline and Tommy stood at her graduation and had held each other as the proud parents of the Valedictorian of the senior class.

When Ellie was 18, a call came from Jackie that Geneva McMillan had died in prison after being attacked. Tommy wasn’t sure how Ellie might take the news but when he relayed it to her all she said was “good” and went back to her chores. Three weeks later she was accepted to the University of Pittsburgh into their computer science program. She had decided to stay close to home and to follow in her mother’s footsteps and Tommy was glad to have her near. She was a responsible young woman but he wasn’t ready to let go. At her request, the night before she moved into the dorms, Tommy took her to the “castle” for the first time. Walking in was like stepping back into yesterday for him. Nothing had changed, only upkeep, cleaning and maintenance had been done but all of Elissa’s things were still there. Together they went through the house and when they came to the study, Tommy stared at the couch where Elissa had been shot. There was nothing but his memories to remind him of what happened there and he didn’t feel the need to tell Ellie. She didn’t need to ever imagine her mother as a ghost in this place; Elissa was an angel in heaven now, far from this world.

When Ellie was 21 she inherited the estate and all the money. Without consulting Tommy she donated the bulk of it to battered women’s shelters in every state. She took some and put it into investments for herself and then took enough out to buy Tommy his very own gym. She was tired of seeing him without anything to show for himself and without fanfare she mailed him the deed and the key from her college dorm. No one that she was ever in school with knew that she was a multimillionaire or that she had given away most of the money. Ellie Conlon was determined to make her own fortune through her own hard work.

When Ellie was 25 she was a graduate with honors of the University of Pittsburgh with her own cyber security consulting business. She’d already doubled the amount of money she’d set aside for herself out of her inheritance. Three months after her 25th birthday, Tommy walked his daughter down the aisle as she promised her forever to Steven Lawson and became his wife.

Grandkids, birthdays, great nieces and nephews, anniversaries, travel, work, retirement… all of these things came to Tommy Conlon and he lived each day to the fullest and never took a single moment with anyone he loved for granted. But always, in the back of his mind, he was counting down the minutes until he got to a place and a moment in time when Elissa would be in his arms again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This, my dear friends, is the end of this tale. Thank you for sticking with it until it's conclusion. I'm sad to let it go. But rest assured that this won't be the last time that Tommy Conlon is the subject of my imagination or the reason that words are put to screen in his honor.


End file.
